More Interruptus Then Coitus
by cherry valence
Summary: They drive each other crazy. "Don't you knock?" A series of Olicity stories in which Oliver barges in on Felicity.
1. Just One More Side

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Just One More Side_

. . .

Summary: Didn't your mother teach you to knock? A series of Olicity stories.

. . .

"Felicity," Oliver walked into her office, glancing though the messages on his phone—none of which were a reply from her. For being an IT girl, she sure seemed to struggle with using her cell phone.

"You're not answering your phone. I'm officially taking you out…"

Oliver's voice trailed off sort of awkwardly as he realized that she wasn't alone in her office. Well, that was different. A very tall and slender woman with dark brown hair was looking over at him with a rather disapproving look and Felicity looked stunned to see him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm interrupting." Oliver held his hands up in apology. "I thought you were alone."

"Young man," The woman shook her head in a way that reminded of his own mother when she was looking to discipline a bad behavior. "Your mother must have taught you better manners than that."

"I um…" Oliver swallowed, pocketing his cell phone. "Yes."

"_Yes_? Just because you have that face is not an excuse for that sort of vulgar behavior it—

"Mother!" Felicity couldn't bear it anymore and jumped from her desk, almost howling in horror. "Mom…"

_Well, _Oliver thought, _this was certainly a side of Felicity he'd never seen. Oliver, there are a lot of sides of Felicity that you haven't seen._

_Tch._

Oliver shook his head once, rebuking himself. _Don't go there, particularly not now._

Felicity sighed disconsolately, covering her face with her hands.

Oliver smiled, Felicity's mother. He hadn't really realized—well then again, he'd never really asked her about her family. His business first attitude was something he'd been trying to amend by taking her out for lunch, as much as he felt they were hovering over an invisible like between friendly…and more-so.

They couldn't afford to go there.

"Oh Felicity, don't be so dramatic." Mrs. Smoak said, "Your suitor doesn't look that sensitive."

Oliver chuckled, "Felicity, could you crawl out from behind your desk and introduce us before I embarrass myself any further?"

"Only if you concede to let me jump out of your office window." Felicity said. "Oliver Queen, meet my mother, Dana Smoak. Mom, my boss and the owner of Queen Consolidated, Oliver Queen."

"Mr. Queen," Dana smiled, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry. Please don't hold that against my daughter."

"I would never, besides, it is my mother's company technically. Besides, you were quite right. My mother would never approve—but let me try and amend this." Oliver nodded his head once. "I was coming down here in the hopes of prying Felicity from the mainframe for lunch, so how about we go—all three of us. My treat."

"Oh no. Nope." Felicity shook her head, "If I can manage to remain staying employed here, at this job that I love and that pays me just _short_ of what I'm worth…"

She shook her head.

"Too much work to do."

"Luckily," Oliver leaned over her desk and flashed her the kind of killer smile that used to draw in any woman he wanted. "You have a very understanding boss."

"Why don't I meet you in the lobby dear?" Dana said, grabbing her purse and jacket from the chair they were sitting on. "It's been a pleasure Mr. Queen. Don't let her fool you, we were just heading out."

"Please," Oliver smiled, "The pleasure was all mine."

After Dana was a safe distance away, Oliver nudged the door shut.

"Are you swearing off lunch hour? You know, you do have to take a break by law."

Felicity rolled her eyes.

"You see, I would like to retain some modicum of self-respect, Oliver. So to be blunt, I'm not going to have lunch with you and my mother."

"I can be perfectly charming." Oliver said, "Have you really not noticed?"

Felicity struggled to not smile. His charm was one of his most annoying qualities, four out five times. He knew how to wield it as excellently as his bow and arrow. Or his body. Not that she was thinking about his body often…

"I see my mother three times a year. She spends one weekend, and I spend four months recovering." Felicity said, typing at her computer almost violently. "Your charm or lack thereof is not a factor."

"We'll invite Digg." Oliver said with a nod of his head. "Come on, time to get out of the office."

Oliver held out his hand for her.

"Don't leave me hanging."

"I warned you." Felicity said, getting up and grabbing her purse. "I'm just—I want to go on record as having said that I warned you Oliver."

"That you did." Oliver confirmed. "Thank you, it was so considerate."

Oliver smiled, but it was erased when Felicity spoke again.

"Let's see how funny you'd find it if it was your mother."

"Well, we'll save that for another time." Oliver said, holding the door open for her. "When you're so entrenched that it won't scare you away."

"That's what I thought." Felicity said in an 'I-Told-You-So' voice.

He laughed, "No one likes a know it all."

Felicity rolled her eyes, and Oliver nudged her with an elbow, eliciting a laugh from her as they walked down the hallway.

. . .


	2. Between the Two of Us

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Between the Two of Us _

_. . . _

Summary: Part of the Don't You Knock series. It's just…being marooned on a desert island doesn't really seem like something to talk about over coffee and crime fighting. Olicity.

Note: Wow! Thanks to everyone for the barrage of reviews, favorites, and alerts! I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the series so far, and I hope you all continue to enjoy reading them as I've been enjoying writing them.

. . .

"No, it's not even like that."

Felicity realized with a little bit of embarrassment that she was admonishing herself out loud as she hacked into the server for Star Weekly, the gossip magazine that she was now definitely cancelling her subscription to.

She took a sip from her now cold latte, and steadied herself with a calming breath.

After all, it wasn't like she made a career out of illegally hacking into websites—

_Well, aside from almost every single night for Oliver Queen. Compared to hacking nearly every government database and being sort of a domestic cyber-terrorist…_

But on the other hand, this level of icky-ness went above and beyond her. It just didn't sit right with her that some sleazy reporter could snap a picture of someone in privacy and sell it to the highest bidder. Not that Oliver had anything to be ashamed of she'd seen those flawless abs and chiseled biceps and—

_Oh girl, do you ever have a problem! This is not going to be a healthy way to spend your time._

He just didn't deserve to have those scars splashed across a glossy page for people to consume and gossip over. What happened on the island was his prerogative, and his business not…

"T.L. Nelsson? You sound like my 10th gym teacher. Makes sense, he was a jerk too." Felicity shook her head in disbelief as she scanned his system, looking for the picture of Oliver. Or pictures.

To her chagrin, she got a glimpse at a picture of Senator Knox, whom she voted for, in a situation with her IRS agent that was a little disappointing to see.

"And I had high hopes for you too." Felicity said, as she wiped through the pictures on her tablet, searching for the ones of Oliver. "That's what I get for being an optimist."

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Oliver said, leaning in her doorway with a smile on his face and two coffee cups in his hands. "The unending optimism is endearing."

Felicity tried to stifle a nervous sound that came out as a squeak and she dropped her tablet.

"Oliver! _Knocking_—we've talked about the knocking thing…" she gestured toward the door to her office. "The door…it has my name on it."

"I see that." Oliver chuckled, setting the coffees on the one small area of her desk that was free and swiping the tablet up from the floor for her before she could reach for it.

"Felicity Smoak."

He smiled at her, flipping the tablet over and seeing the spread of pictures under the Star screen where she had been erasing them for forever.

"Thank you…" Felicity tried to grab for the tablet, but Oliver had already gotten a glimpse at the screen.

_Well, that's not awesome. That's gonna be just…not good._

"Felicity? What's this?" Oliver asked, an eyebrow raised at the grid of pictures of him outside the club, shirtless in nearly all, the scarring on his body a prominent reminder of the five years he'd been marooned on a desert island.

"Outside project, thanks for asking." Felicity tried to snag her tablet back but Oliver didn't let go.

"I'm not going to let the paparazzi start bribing me again." Oliver told her with a serious look reflecting back in his green eyes. "I can take a few slings and arrows."

"Nice choice of words," Felicity said as he released her tablet. "But lucky for you, you're not. _You_ are not even negotiating. Or doing that thing with your bow and arrows that passes as a negotiation for you."

Oliver smiled slightly.

"Thank you, Felicity." he said finally. "I appreciate that you're trying to protect me."

"Hardly breaking a sweat here. I'm deleting the muckety-muck, and you're saying that there is a soy vanilla latte with three shots of espresso because my boss would not let me get any sleep last night and—"

Felicity cringed, covering her face with her tablet.

"That didn't come out right."

_As per usual._

"Don't worry." Oliver said, grinning down at her with his emerald eyes sparkling playfully. "I'll try not to keep you up all night."

Oliver handed her the latte.

"You did a great job last night."

_Well, I wouldn't have minded hearing that under different circumstances…per se._

"Thank you." Oliver told her with a flicker of something in her eyes that she tried to not make into anything more than gratitude to a good friend.

_A friend?_ Felicity asked herself, categorizing exactly what she was, and where she and Oliver stood was enough to give her whiplash. _Friendly?_

When Oliver's hand hit her desk, it shook her out of her inner monologue-slash-debate, settling somewhere around the territory of friendly friends.

"Drinks," he said pointing at her. "Promise me you'll come by the club tonight. Deadmau5 is DJ-ing—and you could use a little less hacking, and a little more fun. When was the last time you had fun?"

"Well, isn't that sort of the pot calling the kettle black?" Felicity said, "And I…"

Felicity looked around her office, "I have fun. I _am_ fun."

Oliver chuckled.

"Digg and I will be there. I think he's bringing Carly, so…no excuses."

"Okay." Felicity nodded her head in concession for a moment. "I'll be there."

She had an incredibly annoying itch that was trying to propel her to ask him if Laurel would be there, but couldn't quite get there.

Oliver was at the door, when finally a jumble of words burst from her mouth in an awkward torrent.

"Anyone else I know? Because, you know I don't want to get drunk and dance on a table top and maybe lose my job by falling in the lap of the President of the company." Felicity cleared her throat, "Or you know, his wife's..."

"Have you ever _been_ drunk, and danced on a table?" Oliver asked with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

Felicity blushed.

"Of course not." Felicity lied, they weren't friendly enough to talk about college yet. Or more to the point, she wasn't drunk enough to tell.

_It was only one time, anyways…_

"Feel free to go crazy. Thea's my date…and her _friend_…I guess." A look of annoyance passed over Oliver's face, before grinning. "Besides, if you fall in my lap we can keep it between the two of us."

As Oliver walked away, something akin to a squeak of mortification escaped Felicity's throat.

"Well, it's going to be a virgin night for you." Felicity said.

_Thank God Oliver wasn't still here for that unfortunate choice of words. Nevertheless, she was sticking to Diet Pepsi and virgin daiquiris tonight. _


	3. Taking a Spill

More Interruptus, Less Coitus

_Taking a Spill_

Summary: Felicity's week was looking up until she spilled her coffee. Part of the Don't you knock? series.

Note: Credit for the idea goes to reviewer Lil5weetie who suggested the idea for this story. Idea is at the end, for those of you who don't like spoilers. Also, I'd like to thank you all again for reading, favoriting, and putting this story on alert.

. . .

"Oh come on!" Felicity sighed as she spilled her iced coffee down her skirt, giving it a reproaching look for doing this to her.

She jumped up from her desk, and kicked her door shut.

Felicity tried to blot out the spreading stain with napkins that had been living in her desk since she stole a cupcake from her boss' birthday party, one of which she realized far too late might have still had a little bit of crusty white frosting on them. Well, it was that or there was something terribly off about her coffee.

It had made zero improvement, Felicity decided after tossing the wet napkins in the garbage can. She glanced at her half-full cup of coffee before picking it up and tossing it in the garbage can too.

"Right up until _you_, this week had been coming up one-hundred percent me." She said, before realizing that talking to the offending cup of coffee was literally making her sound crazy.

She bet these sort of things didn't happen to Laurel Lance. Felicity groaned, breaking her all too sad 'I-Will-Not-Compare-Myself-To-Laurel' rule, and yanked the dress that she kept hanging behind her chair from its hook.

All in all, it had been a good week. She had tickets to Yo La Tengo's sold out show, she finished watching season 2 of Game of Thrones because she actually had three full nights free, and even better—she had disabled someone who was trying to hack into Queen Consolidated's mainframe, and piggybacked on their signal to trace them back and they were now trying to dig their way out of an ocean of viruses.

Oh, and Oliver had told her that she was remarkable.

NO. Felicity reprimanded herself, your sense of amour-propre does not rely on what Oliver Queen says—or lack thereof—he's just another guy.

_Just a guy who makes you go all tingly inside when he says your name, you mean? _

She could almost picture her inner self raising a judgmental eyebrow at herself. Felicity sighed, well it had _been_ a pretty good week.

She untucked her shirt, unbuttoning it and thinking about how she was going to need more coffee. Someone should have invented a clear coffee, really after all these years of innovation and invention no one had set to doing that?

Felicity slipped out of the skirt, hoping that she'd be able to get the stain out, and set it on her chair. She leaned against the desk slipping the dress off of its hanger when she heard the squeak of her door opening and jumped to slam it shut again.

She missed the door entirely, and Oliver Queen slipped into the room just as she tripped, stumbling directly into his arms with her shirt flapping open and exposing the matching underwear set that she had splurged on just recently at Victoria's Secret as part of her good week (formerly). His arms wrapped around her legs and the small of her back, both of them frozen in awkwardness for an uncomfortable moment before she let out something akin to a yelp of horror.

"I'm sorry!" Oliver cringed, standing there for a moment, frozen as she jumped away from him—careful to not trip over her own feet again.

He held his hands up in innocent surrender, before seeming to remember again that she was very nearly naked, and turned his back to her quickly. Oliver reached out, and closed the door again without turning his head.

"Oliver!" Felicity exclaimed, wrapping her shirt around her chest, and swiveling around in a frenzied embarrassment. "The door was closed for a reason!"

Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment at having—having landed in Oliver's arms, never mind the residual tingly feeling in her core at the way his hands felt on her body.

"You're in your office, Felicity." Oliver's tone was strange, like he was trying too hard to keep it even. "Not the ladies' room. I didn't expect you to be disrobing."

"I spilled coffee on my clothes!" Felicity just wanted the earth to open and consume her.

"I'm sorry." Oliver said, "Are you dressed yet?"

"Dressed? Oliver, you're standing in the middle of my office! Like, like...some kind of voyeur..."

"Voyeur?" Oliver started to turn back around to look at her before remembering. "That's a little harsh."

"I'm still not dressed!"

"Not looking." Oliver said, "Don't you trust me?"

"Oliver, I need to get changed!" Felicity realized her voice was slowly edging towards hysteria. "Just—"

"I'm just going to go…" Oliver's voice trailed off a little, his eyes glimpsing her way as he turned for the door.

"I'll wait outside." He finished lamely.

"Awesome idea." Felicity said.

As soon as he was gone, she dropped down in her chair and buried her face in her hands. She could die—in the literal sense. A couple moments passed, and she kicked her shoes off when she heard a knock at her door.

"No!" Felicity yelled, "Just…_no_, Oliver."

She slipped on the pair of emergency black heels that she kept around for such situations, and pulled the dress on.

Really, work used to be such a simple affair. She came to work, did her job, walked down the street for a little fro-yo on her lunch break. It was a good life.

Felicity cursed under her breath as she reached back and couldn't get the zipper up all the way.

"I'm a good person." Felicity said aloud, pointing upwards. "Just in case you forgot!"

With a sigh, she yanked the door open. Oliver turned on his heel and looked at her with that charming sort of half-smile that made her almost forget that she was a little annoyed with him.

"You look really…beautiful, Felicity."

"Don't." Felicity pointed at him a little forcefully. "I'm still mad at you."

"But?" Oliver quirked an eyebrow, "I feel like there is a but at the end of that sentence."

"Just get in here." Felicity sighed, shaking her head and nudged her door shut after he was in. "Can you help me with the zipper?"

"Okay." Oliver said.

Felicity stared straight ahead, fighting the urge to glimpse back at his face. She stood still, feeling his hands at the back of her neck, clipping the closure and there seemed to be a lingering gap before she felt the back of the dress being zipped up.

"You're all set." Oliver told her.

"Thank you." Felicity said, turning around. "So, why are you down here not knocking on my door?"

"I did knock a minute ago." Oliver said, as if it made up for barging in on her while she was changing.

"Well, that was a day late and a dollar short." Felicity quipped, sitting down at her computer and looking up at him. "Who, what, where?"

"It's more of a when and a why." Oliver said, sitting across from her. "Jorge Diaz is the money man of the Mexican drug cartel in Starling City. He's worth millions, and he's made it by ravaging the youth in the Glades. There is a rumor that he is running a sex trafficking ring out of the city, and I'm shutting it down."

"As you rightfully should. Those girls from the Glades?" Felicity asked him, remembering the report of two girls who had disappeared on their way home from school. "You think he has them?"

"I'm going to find out." Oliver said.

"He has a plane scheduled for takeoff out of the Starling Airstrip on Friday evening. At nine." Felicity said.

"You're my girl." Oliver tilted his head toward her in thanks.

"Should I call Digg?" Felicity asked.

"I'm just going to talk to a few people." Oliver said, "Rendezvous tonight?"

"Of course."

It was after Oliver left that Felicity realized with just a little bit of regret that Friday night was the Yo La Tengo concert. She picked up her phone and called her neighbor Hannah.

"Hannah, its Felicity." She left a message on her voice mail. "I've got two tickets for Yo La Tengo, Thursday night at The Ballroom. I've got to work, so I'll just drop them in your mailbox."

Besides, in the grand scheme of things what was a sexy indie concert compared to being the girl who helped the hero save the day?

. . .

_Note: Her suggestion was Felicity forgets to lock the door, and Oliver walks in on her changing. _


	4. Grading on a Curve

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Grading on a Curve_

. . .

Summary: Just fine, except for everything.

Note: Once again, thank you to everyone for all your reviews, favorites, and alerts.

. . .

"No, no...Mr. Hayworth!" Felicity let out a cry of exasperation, nearly yanking the phone off of her desk, as her building superintendent interrupted her again with his bogus excuse.

"I'm very sorry Ms. Smoak, but all tenants were notified a month ago."

"I never _got_ a notification!" Felicity exclaimed, swiveling around in her office chair and trying to think happy thoughts that didn't invoke hacking into the SCPD and having Mr. Hayworth and his stupid shiny bald patch arrested.

"It's not my fault that you weren't collecting your mail." Mr. Hayworth said, in the tired sort of tone that he had taken with her about a month after she moved in.

"Listen, I thought that you would be happy about this. You're the one who has bombarding my email and calling me every day about the insect problems—never mind going ahead and filing your complaint with the housing board."

_Ah ha!_ Felicity thought, and there it was. _She knew that ornery old man was holding a grudge against her. _

"No, don't get me wrong." Felicity said, "I'm thrilled that the cockroaches are being evicted—but I can't just vacate my apartment with no warning."

"Well, the notifications were sent out—as I'm required to do by law, mind you—and they're coming to spray the rooms at ten am." Mr. Hayworth repeated for the third or fourth time. "I'm sure a pretty little thing like you will manage."

_Okay firstly, ew. _Felicity thought, _and secondly, what the hell?_

"Everyone can return to their apartments after the weekend." Mr. Hayworth said, "So if there is anything you need before then, I recommend you get it before seven tonight."

"Yeah, right…I'll just take off from my job in the middle of the day!" Felicity said to him, "You know? You are just as bad—you're awful. You have failed this city!"

Felicity didn't know how it happened, it just sort of popped out of her mouth.

"You want some hard knocks, girl? Go get yourself a place in the Glades." Mr. Hayworth countered.

"Yeah, well here's hoping that The Hood doesn't pop you with a great big arrow!" Felicity exclaimed heatedly, slamming the phone back down onto the hook.

She expelled a huff of air, and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear,

"I certainly wouldn't shed any tears." She grumbled.

Felicity looked up from her desk, eyes wide as she saw Oliver leaning against her door and watching her with his head cocked to the side, and a sparkle in his eyes that left her confident he had heard too much.

"Felicity Smoak," Oliver grinned, almost looking like he was trying to cover the smile with his hand. "I didn't know you have a dark side."

Felicity squeezed her eyes shut, and rubbed her hands over her face in frustration.

"How long were you standing there for?" she asked.

Not the arrow part_, she begged. _Not the arrow part.

"Long enough to know that when you get upset you try to talk like a gangster out of The Sopranos, and frankly….it's kind of adorable." Oliver chuckled, "You don't really 'pop' someone with an arrow."

Oliver sat down, "Are we scheduling executions, now?"

"That's not even funny. Not today, I'm having a very, very bad day." Felicity said, picking up her bottle of water and taking a few sips to calm down. "But that's not why you're here."

Felicity leaned across the desk, "Let's hear it."

"It's nothing important." Oliver said, "Why don't you tell me about it. Maybe I will have to resolve it with an arrow."

"My apartment is being sprayed, and I never even knew until this morning because my building super is still holding a grudge because I reported his stupid building to the housing bureau because it is absolutely ridiculous that I have to share my eight hundred dollar a month apartment with a family of incredibly territorial cockroaches. Never mind that I gave my balcony up as lost because there is _at minimum_ a bee hive and something that resembles a very large squirrel living in the gutters. Oh! And I have until seven tonight to get some clothes and my computer from my apartment and I told my boss I'd have this drive decrypted before I went home tonight..."

Felicity nudged the small drive with her finger, and sighed when she realized it might just be her and the drive tonight. All night, and then all weekend after that.

"Which might not be a problem since I haven't any idea where I'm going to be staying."

"Hm. Really." Oliver nodded his head once, and gestured to her phone. "May I?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Felicity said glancing down at her tablet and unlocking the screen while Oliver made his call.

Maybe she could get a start on it, and grab a bag during her lunch. If they had any rooms, there was a Marriot hotel that wasn't so far from the office and the prices were doable.

"Hello, Ed? No Ed," Oliver chuckled, "It isn't Miss. Smoak. Oliver Queen…yes, it's nice talking to you again too."

"What are you doing?" Felicity mouthed.

Felicity set the tablet down, unable to figure out what exactly Oliver was doing on the phone with her boss. Hey, as long as she didn't end up fired as well as evicted it would be a good day. She was grading on a curve now.

Oliver held a finger up to his mouth to silence her. She was making a mental note to remind him that she really, really hated when people did that.

"The thing is, I'm going to need to borrow Miss. Smoak for the rest of the day. I have some technical difficulties that I need her to resolve…no, I'm sorry someone else isn't—oh you can, that's very good. I'll be sure to let my mother know how accommodating you were. No, thank you."

Oliver hung the phone up, "Well, now that's resolved. Nice guy."

"You just got me the afternoon off." Felicity said. "That's incredible."

"Well, the name does come with some perks." Oliver said.

"It's hard to imagine what you could accomplish with that face then." Felicity declared, stopping abruptly when she realized what she said. "That came out wrong."

Felicity barreled on before Oliver could say anything else, just grateful for his help.

"Great, I'm going to go home and get my things and try and get a room at the Marriot before some conference of dentists and vacationing families snap up all the non-smoking ones." Felicity said, jumping up with her bag, and grabbing her jacket from the hook.

"Oh no you're not." Oliver shook his head, stepping to the side to stop her. "You're staying at the mansion. I promise you'll be comfortable until your apartment is livable again."

"Oliver, that's really sweet, but I can't stay with you. Not that I'd be _with you_ with you—I mean…" Felicity groaned, "I work for your family, I can't stay in your house."

"You're my friend." Oliver stressed, taking her arm and pulling her along. "I'll come by your apartment with you, and then set you up at the mansion."

Felicity sighed, looking him over. "You're not letting it go, are you?"

"You'll love the room." Oliver said, leading her out of her office. "It overlooks the garden, it's very beautiful—I'll be right down the hall if you need anything."

"And your mother?" Felicity asked, "Where is she going to be?"

"The east wing." Oliver said, "Don't worry, she likes a nice houseguest. She'll love you."

_Well sure, why not?_ Felicity thought. _Bedding down next to her boss for the weekend—_

Felicity took a second to thank the god above that she didn't utter that aloud.

"The compound bow is in my car." Oliver said, looking sideways at her with a grin. "Just in case."

"Well, I'm not counting it out." Felicity said, smiling back at him.


	5. Getting the Rhythm Right

All Interruptus and No Coitus

_Getting the Rhythm Right_

_. . ._

Summary: Of course I didn't hear you knocking-Madonna was calling.

Note: Again, thank you to everyone for reviewing, favoriting, and adding to your alerts! Since a lot of people brought this up in their reviews I just want to say that-for those of you who are interested-I am planning a few stories that bounce off of the ideas started here...and when I do post something like that I'll mention it in the note area in case you're interested.

. . .

With a sparkle in her eyes, and a smile turning the ends of her mouth up Felicity Smoak bounced around her office like she had not, and never would, forget the first time she saw a Madonna music video on MTV.

"Open your heart to me baby, I'll give you love…" Felicity sang in almost tune with the song, as she swiveled around in a circle, shaking her hips and laughing in the middle of the line. "Well, I've got something to say…!"

Felicity serenaded the room, turning and pointing to the doorway, freezing only when she heard two words spoken by the person she would least expect to be in her office while she was completely embarrassing herself.

Supposedly with the door closed.

"Oh Felicity,"

Oliver felt the corners of his mouth turn up into a smile, and tried to cover it with his hand before he was bowled over with an onslaught of awkward babbling, flushed cheeks, and a verbose dressing-down about how people knock.

C'mon Oliver, because you have any other reason to actually be down here? There's no samples for her to analyze, no government agencies for her to hack into—he couldn't even muster up a reason for her to power up her google search.

No, he came down here for the express reason of seeing Felicity Smoak.

As Felicity froze in her steps in a sort of comical, almost cartoonish sort of way, with the remote to the stereo kissing her mouth as if she'd been using it as a pseudo-microphone; Oliver's mouth twitched again and he bit down on his lip. She was adorable, and it was going to be the death of him.

"Oliver!" Felicity jumped, taking the deer caught in the headlights look to a whole new level as she looked away, than up, then down—almost as if waiting for the floor to open and let her disappear.

A tune that sounded like it relied heavily on bass and eighties synth beats continued to play on the radio, and Felicity held the remote in her hands as her cheeks turned bright pink.

"All you're missing are the leg warmers and I'd tell you that you may have missed your calling in life." Oliver's mouth continued to twitch in amusement as he watched her.

Suddenly, as if she'd remembered the music, Felicity took the remote and switched the radio volume much, much lower to where it was almost background noise.

"Well, if you've sufficiently embarrassed me for the day by continuing to perpetuate your inability to _knock on the door_ before entering…"

"I did knock. Once." Oliver said, holding up one finger to emphasize his point. "You didn't answer."

"Well of course I didn't hear you. Madonna was calling."

"Well, you answered." Oliver watched her squirm, feeling an easy sort of contentment that had been lacking—the sort of feeling that had been exactly why he came down to the office to see Felicity. "Cute dance."

"Please stop making fun of me." Felicity said, ducking her face away from his.

"I would never…" The smile crept across Oliver's face and he turned his head. "Let me buy you lunch to make up for it."

"No." Felicity said immediately, turning and focusing on her computer.

"Well, I don't think I've ever been turned down so quickly." Oliver said, "Can we try that one more time? Felicity, would you grace me with your presence for lunch to make up for so rudely interrupting your...work?"

Oliver stifled a chuckle.

Felicity peered over the computer screen at him, her stomach rumbling a little at the mention of food. She hadn't had breakfast and she was starving.

"Will there be dessert?"

Oliver smiled, "I think I could swing that."

"I like red wine."

"I know." Oliver said, "I do as well."

"Okay." Felicity smiled, and shrugged her shoulders. "Why not?"

"Great." Oliver handed her jacket that was hanging near the door.

"Also, Oliver…" Felicity gestured toward the door. "That's my door. It has my name on it…it's mine."

_Don't do it Oliver. You just got out of the doghouse. _

"Do you need to change out of your dancing shoes, or should we just take a two-step into the restaurant?"

"I hate you." Felicity said bluntly as he helped her with her jacket, turning and pointing her finger in his face. "For the record. Try googling your way into the NASA mainframe, _Mr_. Queen."

Oliver laughed, taking in the particular scent that Felicity always wore and pretending for both of them that he didn't notice.

"I know." Oliver rested his hand against her back as he led her out the door, taking a step away from her in the hallway.

"Besides Felicity," Oliver glanced sideways as they walked towards the elevator. "We didn't have doors on the desert island I was marooned on."

"Oh, nice try." Felicity said, "But I've known you too long to be guilted into forgiving you anymore."

Felicity waited at the elevator, and Oliver pressed the down arrow.

"Good." Oliver said.

For a moment, the two of them stood there in quiet, comfortable silence until the elevator dinged and Oliver pressed his hand into the small of her back and led her into the elevator."

_Good, _he thought. _It was a good afternoon after all. _


	6. Eavesdropping

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Eavesdropping _

_. . . _

Summary: You were skulking around out there.

Note: Once again, you guys are bowling me over with the love. Thanks to you all for the reviews, favorites, and putting the story on alert.

. . .

"Well, sure Ed," Felicity said, "I mean, Seattle could be doable. I love the city."

Outside of her office, Oliver froze and skirted around the door when he saw that she was with her managing boss, Ed Albright.

Listening to the conversations, something inside of him, deeper than his muscles tensed up; on a more fundamental level he was filled with a sort of remorse he hadn't felt for awhile. It was like his conscience kicked him in the chest for not being…

For not being more observant, for not making sure that she knew how implausibly important she was not just as a member of the team—being the Hepburn to his Tracy—but as one of the best friends that he had. And he didn't have many friends.

Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. Quietly, Oliver stood and listened to the conversation.

"It's a mess up there. The place is just in shambles—shambles— they need someone who can really turn it around up there. They really want you, you know."

Well, of course they want her. She's the best there is to have.

"I heard." Felicity said, "The system was hacked into and all sorts of mishaps happened. Corrine told me that a whole factory was shut down for two weeks, hundreds of people out of work."

"Yeah, right…" Ed snorted, "Like the company cares about that. A few hundred people weren't getting a paycheck, but that wasn't what the Queens' were upset about I can tell you that."

"I don't know about that." Felicity said in a defensive, firm tone that made Oliver smile. "They're good people, Mrs. Queen has been on it day and night to square things away—look at how hard they're working to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. The new system with its fail safe will protect the people from this."

God, she really was something else. He chastised himself silently for not seeing that she wanted out—that she could be scared after what happened with The Dodger. He'd been too lax, let the dangers of his life get too close to her and she was collared by a bomb.

She could have been killed because he wasn't vigilant enough.

"I guess it doesn't hurt that the golden son has that face, does it?" Ed asked her.

_Golden son?_ Oliver mouthed the words, narrowing his eyes in annoyance. Five years marooned on a damn island and he didn't shake that ludicrous label?

"_Ed_." Felicity said in an incensed tone.

"Oh fine," He sighed, "I forget you have some sort of protective-defensive complex when it comes to him."

"No, you know what. I'm not."

Oliver listened as something with a little bit of weight dropped and made a little clunk sound.

"I think that it's total crap, and it's completely unfair."

God, she did deserve a promotion, Oliver thought. As a matter of fact, he wasn't sure why she wasn't Ed's superior, or running the whole tech division for that matter, and it wasn't just because she was saying nice things about him.

"Everyone in this building—_this town_ for that matter—runs around judging Oliver Queen for something that happened over five years ago. He spent five years in the middle of the ocean, so I think people can let it go now—he's a different person."

Oliver shook his head, feeling a smile at the corners of his mouth.

_Felicity Smoak_. Saying that he would miss her just didn't cover it.

"Five years ago doesn't mean it's not true." Ed said.

"That's right." Felicity said, "Weren't you in the middle of an affair five years ago?"

Oh, ten points Felicity. Oliver thought, stifling a chuckle. He was glad that she was getting to tell her boss off before she left.

"Well, aren't _you_ in a tizzy today?" Ed asked. "What's got you? I figured you'd be thrilled about Seattle."

"What part?" Felicity asked, "Mistakes were made, and they're being amended."

Maybe she didn't want to go, Oliver considered. Maybe she—

No, Oliver sighed to himself and shook his head. He couldn't beg her to stay.

"It's just, you're such a perfectionist." Ed remarked, "It must be eating you up."

"Hey—no, no, _no_!" Felicity exclaimed, "I developed the software, not the firewalls. You better put that one away, I would never make such an egregious error."

"Well, Seattle is going to be a nice change." Ed said, "You always said the coffee was great there."

"Ed, there is a Starbucks on every corner. That's like saying that Amazon delivers fast in Seattle."

Oliver bit down on his lip, deciding that he'd been lurking outside of her office long enough, and had better head in before he got made for stalking. Or he laughed out loud and exposed himself.

Huh. He swore, the more time he spent around Felicity the more his brain seemed to rearrange the most innocuous sentences into something inappropriate.

"Felicity?" Oliver knocked on the open door once, and walked in, pretending to be surprised when he saw Ed in the room. "Oh sorry to interrupt. The door was open."

Part of him thought there was actually a sparkle of amusement in Felicity's eyes. He knew she had a particular fondness for his BS excuses.

He pointed out the door, jerking his hand back.

"I can come back later."

"I was just leaving." Ed said, "Great seeing you again Mr. Queen. Always a pleasure."

"Likewise, Ed." Oliver shook his hand, before he went on his way and closed the door behind him.

He had bigger problems in front of him than the duplicity of his family's employees.

"Well," Feicity swiveled around in her chair and cocked an eyebrow at him. "How long were you skulking around out there?"

"I don't….skulk." Oliver said with a frown.

"You're six feet tall, and you somehow have the ability to creep around like a cat without a bell around its neck. What do you call it when you're stalking a girl outside her office?"

"Ha ha," Oliver felt a little pang as he thought about how much he would miss her. "She's a funny Felicity today."

_Irreplacable_.

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough." Oliver said, deciding he may as well come clean, he didn't want her to feel guilty, or indebted to him about leaving. "How'd you know?"

"You knocked." Felicity said bluntly.

"And you don't turn the other cheek." Oliver said, pausing for a moment before going on. "That was sweet of you, by the way."

"Oh wow, you were out there for like…" Felicity nodded her head, "A while."

"Sorry." Oliver said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"It wasn't personal, or anything, I just…I don't like it when people gossip." Nervously, Felicity readjusted her glasses. "I also don't like people spreading rumors, so…there."

Oliver chuckled, "Remarkable."

He sighed, taking in the curly blonde hair pulled into the ponytail, the unique sweater and the quirky and ironic "nerdy girls do it right" pin; shaking his head once. It was inconceivable that she was going to be out of his life.

"I'm going to miss you." Oliver said, "You really are one of the best friends I have."

"Huh?" Felicity regarded him with a look of incomprehension. "What do you mean?"

"I know that I'm not exactly effusive when it comes to expressing how I feel, but you've been a good friend to me Felicity. I'm going to miss you when you're in Seattle."

"Oh. Oh!" Felicity laughed, "Oh no, Oliver."

"What?" He felt a little dazed by the peculiar reaction she was having.

Felicity shook her head with an apologetic look crossing her face.

"This is why people tell you not to eavesdrop! Ed is going to Seattle to take over there, and he came by to talk about the city, I lived there for a little while after college."

"Oh." Oliver said, unable to form much more of a sentence than that.

Felicity wasn't leaving. She was here, she was staying here.

_With you_, the little voice in his head told him. _She's not running._

"Like I could leave you and Digg?" Felicity said with a snort, "With that system I set up? Just thinking about what you would do to it—it hurts me. As much as _you_ hate to admit it—you need me."

"I…" Oliver couldn't help the smile the twitched at the corners of his mouth.

He merely conceded with a nod of his head.

"You would have deserved the promotion." Oliver said, "I've seen how hard you work at your job."

"They offered." Felicity said. "And I declined."

She smiled over her computer at him,

"You think I could leave you and Digg to rescue the city on your own?"

"Like we could without you?" Oliver replied.


	7. Now You Knock

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Now You Knock?_

_. . . _

Summary: It was a moment worthy of acrobatics in four inch heels and a tight skirt.

Note: As always, thank you so much to all you awesome people for reviewing, favoring, and putting this story on alert. Just as a sidebar, continue to feel free to throw any requests or suggestions you have my way.

. . .

Felicity glanced down, feeling the annoying itch at the top of her feet again as she reached down to scratch her foot and froze in horror for a moment as this bulbous, hairy grey body scampered over her feet, clad scantily in a pair of stiletto heels, whipping its tail like a cord of rope behind it grazing scratchily against her ankle.

She screamed shrilly, jumping out of her chair and kicking it backwards when she crawled up onto her desk.

_Oh god, oh no_…Felicity felt a panicked wave of lightheadedness as the mouse ran around her office and let out a squeak of horror as instead of running in the other direction, the mouse tried to scamper up her chair—bringing it that much closer to her.

"It's an office building!" Felicity moaned aloud, looking in horror to see that she'd closed her door and couldn't call for help.

She crouched down low on the desk, trying the acrobatic act of trying to reach her phone and not split her skirt, or tumble off of the desk but lost her footing and managed to kick the phone to the floor. Her cell phone was across the room in her purse, and…

"Stop staring at me!" Felicity tiptoed around on her desk cautiously, trying not to make eye contact—because that agitated animals, right?—

"Help!" Felicity screamed, feeling like it was locking its eyes on her, sucking up her scent for the kill. "Help!"

. . .

Felicity would be thrilled.

He had some sort of unbreakable code on a laptop that belonged to slumlord Anatoly Marinov, which would give the police all the evidence they needed to lock him up for rate gouging on his apartments, never mind his side business as a brutal loan shark who had made himself a millionaire by taking advantage of some of the poorest people in the city.

Well, Oliver thought with a pleased grin, it would be unbreakable before he passed it off to his girl.

Oliver hadn't the time to think about the implications of referring to Felicity as 'his girl' when he heard a scream that sounded like it originated from her office, seventy feet down the hall.

He ran down the hall, dropping the computer to the side and twisting the door handle. It was jammed, or locked—it wasn't budging.

"Felicity!" Oliver pounded on the door, a wave of worry for her passing over him. "Felicity, are you okay?"

"Oliver!" There was a short pause before he heard a little scream again and the sound of something falling.

He turned and kicked the door in, darting inside the office, to find her crouching on top of her desk and looking…okay. Definitely okay.

Kind of…sexy. _Oh no, no. Don't even think it. _

Leggy. God, if that skirt was any tighter...

Just _thinking_ the word, vibrated through his body like a purr of unchecked desire.

"You're okay." Oliver said, perplexed and frustrated. He was pretty sure he broke her door, but he didn't care.

At least she was okay.

"Oh what? _Now_ you knock?" Felicity exclaimed as Oliver looked around her room in confusion. "Some lunatic could be murdering me and shoving my lifeless body in my closet—and you knock on the door?"

"So what? We're you testing my...response?" Oliver looked her over with sort of an incredulous smile, weighting whether or not to tell her about the door or keep her guessing

"No!" Felicity exclaimed, pointing at the floor where the mouse had once been.

"I thought…" Oliver glanced around her office, scrunching his eyebrows together in thought. "I heard a scream? Blood-curling scream of horror ring a bell?"

He turned back around to look at her standing on top of her desk still, and tried to hide a grin. Felicity really was just…a ray of sunshine into his day.

"And I reiterate, you—"Felicity's reprimand was cut off my something between a squeak and a scream as the mouse shot out from behind a book case. "Oliver!"

"What?" Oliver looked around the room in confusion. "What—oh."

Oliver's glance settled on the little grey mouse, cowering next at the corner of her book shelf.

"Please tell me," Oliver swallowed a chuckle, finding it hard to believe that she had run for cover and screamed bloody murder over Mickey Mouse's stray cousin.

"Oliver—it's not funny!" Felcity squealed in fear as the mouse moved again, scampering to the other side of the room.

"What did they do to you?" Oliver shook his head, crouching down carefully and picking up the mouse. "He's harmless, Felcity."

"Please. Please, just get rid of him."

"Okay." Oliver said reassuringly. "Okay. I'm just going to…I'll be right back."

He cupped his hand over the mouse, and slipped out of the office.

"She's usually very nice." Oliver told him, petting the top of his head. "Don't hold it against her."

In the hallway, he tried to find someone he could unload the mouse on. He slipped down the hall into the lobby and saw George, a janitor he'd known since he was a kid tagging along to the office with his dad flirting with one of the young receptionists.

"George?" Oliver waved him over, holding the mouse carefully. "I need a hand."

"Sure thing, what's the trouble?"

Oliver showed him the mouse.

"My friend found him in her office, you think you can stick him away someplace until I can find its owner? She's scared to death of these guys."

George chuckled, "No problem, Mr. Queen. I can store him away in the office—I'll keep an ear open, spread the word."

"You're a good man." Oliver clapped him on the shoulder, and passed the mouse over. "Thanks."

Oliver hurried back to Felicity office, grabbing the laptop he had dropped in his hurry to help her and slipped back into the office

. . .

"That's a neat trick," Oliver said, trying to cover up his laugh with his hand.

"You know what? I could erase your entire existence in the time it takes to blink." Felicity shot back, trying to figure out how in the hell she was going to get off of her desk.

"You'd have to get off of that desk to do that, wouldn't you?" Oliver teased.

It had not escaped her attention that Oliver Queen was completely making fun of her.

Four inch heels and slim fitting gray skirt, while very professional and flawlessly perfect for a meeting with the CFO was not so practical for jumping off of desks with.

Or on, for that matter. She had no idea how she got on top of the desk without breaking anything, or tearing a hole in anything. And she had even less of an idea as how to get off.

She bit down on her lip, concluding there was so physics calculation that would solve this conundrum for her.

Come on, Oliver nodded his head once and held out his arms.

Before she could shake her head no, and still pretend she had a real reason for hanging out on top of her desk, Oliver grabbed her, cupping his hands around her waist, lifting her off of the desk, and placing her easily back on the ground.

_Oh my_, Felicity couldn't help the little spark that seemed to internalize somewhere in her chest.

_Talk about neat tricks. It did great things for this girl's self-esteem to have Oliver pick her up like she was a pillow._

Oliver dropped his hands away from her sides, and turned quickly, looking around the room.

"I'll stop by and talk to someone, make sure there isn't some sort of problem. Have the place sprayed if there is." Oliver turned again and looked her over, "More than likely some kid is missing his pet."

"That's not a pet." Felcity said, nervously adjusting her skirt, and making sure her shirt was tucked in evenly. "A dog is a pet, a cat is a pet-sometimes even a bird, but those are rodents. They are not pets."

Oliver chuckled and shook his head.

"The things I don't know about you." Oliver crouched down and swept up the computer that he'd set to the side in the flurry of excitement.

"For me?" Felicity asked, beaming at him.

After that excellent demonstration of why she was just a little crazy, she looked forward to redeeming herself and putting the moment behind them.

"Don't I always come bearing gifts?"

"That's my knight in shining armor." Felicity winked at him, and then mentally kicked herself.

Awkward.

She sat down at her desk and flipped the laptop open.

"Also," Oliver said, "Someone will be up to fix your door."

"What's wrong with it?" Felicity asked.

"I…broke it." Oliver said with a little bit of a shrug.

"You broke my door down…" Felicity pointed between the two of them and the door, covering her face in embarrassment. "I locked it this morning…"

"Yeah," Oliver shook his head. "Don't do that anymore. The knocking thing didn't really take."


	8. Cost Outweigh the Value

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Cost Outweigh the Value_

. . .

Summary: If a girl was going to need a white knight, well of course Oliver Queen would be right around the corner.

Note: As usual, thank you all so much. I'm amazed that you all love the story so much, and just a big thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts you keep rolling on in.

. . .

"Yeah right," Felicity grumbled, shoving her tablet to the side and rolling her eyes.

She didn't know why it was that she bothered reading her horoscope any more, all it served to do was further provoke her. As if she wasn't feeling a little high-strung already at the prospect of meeting her new boss today.

"You can take that and shove it…"

He voice trailed off as she heard a noise in the doorway, and looked up almost on instinct, certain that Oliver was loitering there to tease or torture. Felicity was sure he'd be coming by soon anyways to get an ETA on the encrypted flash drive that she was breaking open for him—done, because she was awesome that way. Too bad that she couldn't use his projects as proof of her incredibly valued status as an employee at Queen Consolidated and…

"Mr. Donovan!" Felicity jumped up, in surprise as she saw the new boss standing at her door.

"I was just about to knock." He said, "Is this a bad time for you, Ms. Smoak?"

_Yeah, she was sure_. She'd heard this 'just about to knock' BS before, and if she wasn't buying it from Oliver's baby blues she wasn't going to from…

Felicity looked her humorless looking boss over; from his beige shoes to the too shiny bald spot and decided this would be one more case of the less she opened her mouth, the better.

"No sir, not at all." Felicity jumped up, a little nervous to have him dropped in like this. "I'm sorry. I thought we were meeting in your office this afternoon."

"I like to see my staff in their habitat." Mr. Donovan said, taking the seat across for her desk. "Is that okay with you?"

_No, not really. Do I come and gawk at you in your office?_

She had a feeling she was going to miss Ed, and that was a sentiment she didn't think she'd be expressing, well…ever.

"Oh sure, no problem at all. Make yourself comfortable."

_Well, I guess you already did. _Felicity thought, trying to remember to not stare at the shiny bald patch.

"Nice day, isn't it?" Felicity asked, nervous by his silence.

"Hm." Mr. Donovan said, flipping open a file. "You've been with Queen Consolidated for three years?"

"About three and a half, actually." Felicity said, "I was recruited out of college. I um…I had a lot of choices, I was at the top of my class, but this company had the most interesting projects—and I was told about the freedom I would have when it came to design of software—I designed the firewalls that were used by the securities in Applied Sciences."

"I see that." Mr. Donovan said, "You're credited with some of the highest security clearance at this company, some very selective projects—you've made quite a name for yourself here."

"I'm ambitious." Felicity said, "I'm also very, very good at what I do."

"And thus," Mr. Donovan said, "It's made you indispensable to the company."

"Thank you." Felicity said.

"It wasn't a compliment Ms. Smoak." He looked over her the desk at her with a critical look. "You've been red flagged."

"Red flagged? For _what_?" Felicity bit down on her tongue before she could say anything to get her into trouble—or apparently, more trouble. "I'm a good—nigh, great member of the IT team. In some cases, I would go as far as saying that I am without a doubt the most invaluable member of the tech team here—look a little deeper into my file and you'll see that I was the one who repaired a bug that gone unchecked would have resulted in a billion—_billion_!—dollar loss for the shareholders."

"We aren't questioning your technical prowess," Mr. Donovan said, gesturing with the folder, "I wouldn't be showing my due diligence if I didn't note the alteration in your at work behavior over the last six months. You have been chronically tardy, the number of assignments that you've passed on to tech assistants has raised dramatically, and you've also had a tendency to begin making your own hours the last two months."

"Okay firstly, I've passed off minor, low security assignments to assistants—because that's what their job is to do—not mine. My job is to fix the high priority, high security incredibly important issues at this company—breaches in the firewall, hacking into the mainframe, creation of the software to prevent these things…" Felicity took a breath, all fired up in her frustration and annoyance with her boss.

_Investigating Moira Queen…_

"Not to reboot the CFO's router!"

She looked up as she slammed her hands down on her desk to now, see Oliver in her doorway.

He knocked, belated as always, and Felicity let out a huff of annoyance with Mr. Donovan crossing her arms across her chest as he turned to the doorway.

"Mr. Queen," Mr. Donovan said, jumping up to shake his hand. "It's a pleasure meet you. I didn't know you were looking for me, we can go back to my office and talk."

"I wasn't actually…looking for you that is, Mr…"

"Donovan," He supplied quickly, "Greg Donovan."

Felicity couldn't help but to grin smugly at the way his face well when he realized Oliver wasn't looking for him, or even that he didn't know his name. Tough. The role of sidekick was long since filled, and she wasn't letting go.

"What's going on here?" Oliver said looking between them.

"We're just doing an employee assessment, sir." Mr. Donovan said.

Oliver set the laptop he was holding down on the chair, and gestured to the folder.

"You are aware that Ms. Smoak is an invaluable member of the team at Queen Consolidated." Oliver said, with a take charge tone that seemed to make Mr. Donovan quaver.

"I told him that." Felicity said, before biting her lip with the realization that probably wasn't helping the situation. "I have a master's degree from Stanford."

_Her knight in shining armor._ She should have known that if there was a girl needing some rescue, he'd be right in her doorway.

"Yes, Mr. Queen, if you flip to the back of the folder you'll see that Ms. Smoak's record has been riddled with persistent lateness, passing over of projects, and more than a handful of time she has either not come into work or left early."

Oliver nodded his head, "I see."

He pulled the sheets from the file, flipping through to glance at the rest of the documents in the manila folder and handed it back to Mr. Donovan.

Felicity had never realized that Ed was keeping such close tabs on her all the times she was working on a project for Oliver, or had left the office to help him.

"Oh sir, I'm sorry but you can't separate—"

She could have told him herself that Oliver really, really didn't take to well to being told what he could or couldn't do in any situation.

_Bad choice_, the little voice in her head sang.

Well, she could have told him if she didn't think shiny bald spot was a super jerk.

"Mr. Donovan," A twinkle of intimidation sparkled in Oliver's eyes as he looked him down. "I'm Mr. Queen, you'll be surprised to find that I can do anything that I choose to. Right now, I'm choosing to tell you that these do not exist."

"Sir…"

"Ms. Smoak," Oliver stressed, "Is an employee of flawless character who has worked very closely on some projects that are very important to my mother and step-father. She answers directly to them, and myself by default."

_I wouldn't have minded a raise though_, Felicity thought with a sigh.

"Of course, Mr. Queen." He nodded his head, conceding to what Oliver said. "I'll leave it that."

"Set up the paperwork for a pay increase as well." Oliver said with a slight nod of his head. "Twenty percent should be accurate."

_Well, now I might be overpaid_. Felicity thought. However, now didn't seem like the time to tell Oliver that. _Also, Oliver might be a little psychic—_that was scary in and of itself, considering the way her mind ran unchecked around him.

"Yes, sir."

"You can go on your way now." Oliver said.

Donovan left, hurrying out the door and Felicity let out a huff of annoyance.

"I could break his scrawny neck, and no jury in this country would convict me." Felicity said, infuriated once Donovan was gone and Oliver closed her door. "What a prick."

"I was worried something like that might happen." Oliver said, "Sorry. I meant to take care of that much earlier."

He tore up the sheets that red flagged her into the size of post it's and tossed them in the garbage can.

"You did, and impressively so." Felicity held out her hands for the computer. "You're also overpaying me by at least a few thousand dollars, fyi."

Oliver chuckled, "Is that it? Then by my standards you're still not being paid what you're worth, Felicity."

She shook her head, trying to hide the smile and flush to her cheeks that his compliment gave her.

"You don't need to butter me up. What goodies are on this one?" Felicity set the laptop down, and handed him back the flash drive. "Let's call it an even trade—that was filled with a whole pile of spreadsheets. The police commissioner is making enough under the table to fund a small country in the Pacific."

"I'm not sure." Oliver said, cringing at the wide eyed look that Felicity gave the computer as she opened it seeing the shattered keyboard with a hole nearly all the way through to the other end.

"Why do you do this to me?" Felicity asked.

"Travis decided to run." Oliver said, as if it was a matter of fact situation. "Salvageable?"

"For most people?" Felicity said, poking around at it, and shaking her head.

"You're not most people."

"Give me twenty-four hours." Felicity said, "If Travis knows something about anything, I'll get it for you."

Oliver made a little sound of satisfaction,

"Felicity, what would I do without you?"

"Crash and burn." Felicity said, glancing up as Oliver stood to leave.

_Worth it_, Felicity thought, pulling the laptop apart once he was gone. It didn't really matter the sort of trouble that Donovan had tried to scare her with, because frankly, it was the mission.

She didn't dare say it aloud, but she was in it for Oliver, she was in it because she wanted to help him succeed in his mission.

Worth it, because she was the one who got to be there for the hero.


	9. Date Night

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Date Night_

_. . ._

Summary: He brought carnations. That by definition make it not a date.

Note: Kerflummoxed! Thank you all for loving these chapters so much! I really appreciate all the love you're giving this story. Also, if anyone wants to throw out requests/recommendations of what they'd like to see in coming chapters feel free to. This one is based on a suggestion from _Lil5weetie_ (suggestion at bottom).

**Also, for anyone who is interested, I posted and Oliver/Felicity mix on my LJ sunsetstyle—just for some shameless self-promo there. Is anyone in this world actually on LJ anymore? Sheesh.

. . .

Facebook was responsible for the entire downfall of their civilization.

Felicity Smoak made this decision as she opened her office door and found Sam West, her ex-boyfriend from college standing behind her door with a smile and a bouquet of carnations.

"I know that we were supposed to meet at the restaurant," he said as she invited him in, leaving the door open before turning back around to see him running a hand through his thick, perfectly coiffed and highlighted brown hair before handing her a colorful arrangement.

"But I thought that I would surprise you."

"Well…surprise!" Felicity said, slipping past him awkwardly, and setting the flowers on her desk. "It's just…you're sort of early and—

"Felicity, its okay," he brushed his hand against her arm, the corners of his lips turning upwards to flash a too perfect smile. "I'm happy to see you in your natural habitat, you watched me in mine on the field during all those games after all. Fair trade."

_Oh boy. Oh no._ Felicity panicked as the red flag went up, definitely not a just friends date. She knew that agreeing to dinner was just a bad idea all around.

_You have no one to blame except yourself. _

"Yeah, uh huh…" Felicity turned her back, and said a silent prayer as she sat down in front of her computer and tried to wrap things up for the day.

"You haven't changed a bit, you know." Sam said with a grin as he looked her over, "You're as sexy as ever. I mean, that ponytail…"

_Correction: You have no one to blame except for yourself that you dated an idiot and a jerk_

Sam made a little groaning sound that resembled something that neighbor's Pomeranian did when it stole her Thai leftovers from the garbage can.

_NONONONO!_ Felicity willed her computer to explode, or the fire alarm to go off, or—

"I love the way you grew out your hair. I always loved a woman with long hair."

_Oh yeah_, Felicity thought. _Long hair just like your mother's._

How had that not been the first warning bell to cut off ties with Sam?

"Oh boy, I haven't forgotten." Felicity said, "That was one of our problems. Remember?"

Sam laughed, "You always made me laugh."

_Probably because you never did, can't, and won't grasp the subtle art of sarcasm. Actually, you didn't really grasp 'no' all that well either, or 'go screw yourself'._

She'd also be more than willing to accept her boss tossing her a new assignment at the end of the day, you know, something that would devour her weekend and make meeting up with Sam just an unfortunate impossibility.

It would be sad and tragic, but _oh well_? What can a girl do in this tough economy? She would just have to manage as the scores of working women who preceded her always had.

Felicity puttered around at her desk for a few more minutes, and realized she couldn't drag it out any longer. Ed was not going to call.

Reluctantly, she turned off her computer and slipped her tablet into her purse. When she passed by Sam to grab her jacket, his hand lingered at her side and it was all she could do to not throw up.

Right, that was why she broke up with him. He was pretty much a smarmy dick type.

"Felicity." Oliver said, looking between the two of them, his eye's narrowing in a way that was just short of possessive but intimidatingly enough for Sam to drop his hand from her side.

"Oliver!"

She'd never tell Oliver his timing was perfect. He'd never let her live it down if she _thanked_ him for not knocking.

"We were going to knock." Digg said, gesturing to the door.

"Sam West." He said, extending his hand suddenly when Felicity didn't introduce him.

"Oliver Queen." Oliver took his hand firmly—as firmly as it could be without bordering on assault, Felicity noticed. _Well, that was mature_. "Yes, that Oliver Queen."

"Oh well, uh…congrats on making it off of the island man—although hey, going back would probably seem like a welcome relief to the nine to five grind, am I right?"

"No." Oliver said with a shake of his head, glancing past him with a raised eyebrow at Felicity.

Oh and he was coming through loud and clear. She was so happy he could drop on by and condemn her choice in men. Though, this was so far ancient history—well, acid wash jeans had a better chance at making a comeback.

_When I requested an assignment from the boss,_ Felicity said, glancing upwards, _I meant the other one. I wasn't looking for Oliver to come and big brother me._

"You look like you're heading out." Digg said, "If this is a date, we can come back."

"No we can't." Oliver said obstinately. "Besides, it's obviously not a date. He brought carnations."

Felicity's mouth fell open out of either shock, or maybe appreciation, and she quieted the gasp of surprise.

Sam turned towards her looking a little less puffed up.

"It's not a date." Felicity said quickly, "Sam, I'm sorry it looks like we're going to have to reschedule."

"I'll call you." Sam said in a brusque tone as he turned away, without another word.

However, something in his tone told her she might not have to worry about Sam tomorrow night, or any night after that.

"He's sorry." Digg said once Sam was gone. "We didn't mean to break up your night."

"It's fine." Felicity shrugged it off.

"He's sorry," Oliver pointed to Digg. "I'm not sorry."

Digg looked at him, and shook his head. "What is wrong with you? Didn't get in enough licks with Roy?"

"Oh that was not a real date." Oliver reiterated, slinging the words with a roll of his eyes.

_Well, wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence. _

"That guy wasn't good enough for you, Felicity." Oliver pointed to her desk when she didn't reply. "He brought carnations!"

"Oliver." Digg stressed his name firmly. "Not your business."

Felicity could feel Oliver's eyes burning through her, and finally gave in to it. It was hard to defend it when she'd been thinking the same things herself.

"Fine! Fine, it wasn't a date. I can't stand the guy—now, what do you want? Because I'm just glad I finally get to understand how the fire hydrant in front of my building feels."

Oliver smiled,

"Nothing in particular. No need to get feisty."

"We were just getting burgers and fries and thought we'd see if you wanted to come along." Digg said.

"And instead we rescued you from that tool, it's not bad for a day's work." Oliver said.

"Not good enough for you by a long shot." He tacked on, while the opportunity to say so was still there.

He gave her a knowing look, and a little nod of his head to prove that they both knew he was right. If this was how he talked to Thea, it was no wonder she was always infuriated with him.

"Yeah, you know I got that." Felicity said, defensive of the criticism of her choice in men—not that she didn't know he was lacking herself, but she didn't need _Oliver_ pointing it out to her. "You said that already."

_It was bad enough that she had this all too obvious crush, but to be so effortlessly friendzoned…._

"I just wouldn't want to see you settle for someone who isn't worthy of your vivacity." Oliver said, with a glimmer in his eyes that set the tingling in her stomach ablaze. "You don't bring carnations to a gerbera daisies girl."

_Okay, it's really sort of hot, but that doesn't make it not annoying when he does that. Or—was that a really good guess, or did he know those were her favorite? There really was not telling with Oliver._

"Oh fine!" Felicity exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at Oliver. "Like you didn't make any bad decisions in College?"

"We're not talking about me." The smile slipped from Oliver's face.

"Just google it." Digg advised her. "My favorite is the one where he absconded with the Princeton University President's yacht, and one-third of the New York City Ballet."

"Ambitious." Felicity said, raising her eyebrows in Oliver's direction.

"I always was an overachiever." He said with a smile.

. . .

_**Felicity and a guy are getting close when Oliver interrupts_


	10. Misunderstanding

More Interrupts Than Coitus

_Misunderstanding _

. . .

Summary: When Oliver heard the noises under the desk, his mind wandered.

Note: As always, thanks for the reviews, alerts, and favorites. I'm glad you're all enjoying reading as much as I am writing it.

. . .

"Shh, Shh…Stay down, no stay right there," Felicity purred softly.

As Oliver walked into her office, he stopped abruptly behind a tall file case, surprised and a little bewildered when he didn't exactly see Felicity. He did, however, see part of a blonde ponytail and a red heel poking out from the side of her desk.

_Well, that was promising_. He thought.

"No, no no..." She whispered in a low breathy voice. "Naughty boy! You have to stay right there."

"Please, let that be an animal under your desk." Oliver said, cringing as a less than pleasant image flashed through his mind.

Felicity panicked, jumping up and cracking her head against the desk.

"Oh, ow!" Felicity crawled up to her feet, taking the hand that Oliver offered her. "Don't you knock?"

"What is that? Amnesia?" Oliver asked with a teasing smile as she brushed her skirt with her hands. "I don't knock. Not really my thing."

Felicity rubbed her hand back over her hair, feeling a painfully large bump. She straightened her glasses on her face, groaning as Oliver leaned forward and glanced under the desk, causing the spaniel-esque mix to start yap-yapping at Oliver.

"Oh it really is a dog." Oliver raised his eyebrows, "Hello there, little guy."

The dog proceeded to woof-woof at him, and Oliver took a step back, turning around the desk to close the door before anyone overheard.

"That sounded like you bumped your head pretty good." Oliver took her by her arms and made her sit down in her chair.

Back in the dog's eye line, he started to bark again.

"Shh!" Felicity told him, "I told you—you have to be quiet."

"Wow, he really doesn't like me." Oliver said, his fingers probing her head gently to make sure there was no serious damage.

Felicity tried to distract herself from the tingle in her chest at Oliver's soft touch.

"He's a she actually," She found herself babbling nervously, wincing as his fingers touched the bump. "She a cocker spaniel mix."

"Funny, women usually love me." Oliver said, a grin at the corner of his mouth.

"Maybe I have a concussion, but you're not actually that funny." Felicity said, closing her eyes against the throbbing in her head.

"Uh huh…" Oliver said, carefully pulling the ponytail from her hair.

"What? Why?" Felicity took her hair tie that he handed down to her.

"You've got a little cut." Oliver said, "Maybe you should take a day off. I'll take you to get it checked out."

"Whoa." Felicity shook her head, gesturing to her desk. "Notice here, all the work I have to do _including_ breaking through a firewall for you—never mind the uh…"

She gestured below her desk to the dog.

"It can wait." Oliver said, "If I gave you a concussion—that cannot."

"This coming from the same guy who wouldn't let me take him to the emergency room when he was shot in the chest?" Felicity asked, feeling a little dizzy and dazed either from bumping her head or from the sheer closeness of Oliver.

"Well, that was because I knew what I was doing and you didn't." Oliver said, "Much like in this particular case."

"You smell like the forest, and cinnamon…" Felicity took another breath, "Is that tobacco?"

Oliver chuckled, "You clearly have a concussion."

"No. Nope." Felicity shook it off, nudging the chair out of his body space. "You just smell good."

_Oh my god. _Felicity couldn't believe she said it aloud. Well, no, she could. She didn't want to though. _Maybe you should let yourself have a concussion and write that one off._

She shook her hair out, and felt her head throb.

"I'm fine. It's not like I'm jumping off of buildings." Felicity said, "I'm marginally clumsy by nature, so we can write this one off as a cautionary tale as why you should knock instead of scaring me to death."

"I'm sorry." Oliver said, sliding into the seat opposite of her desk. "So you're feeling better?"

"Much." Felicity pulled her hair back into the ponytail.

"So, tell me about the puppy." Oliver said, leaning back in the chair. "I didn't know you were a dog person."

"I'm not, I mean not exactly, per se…" Felicity bit down on her lip, "This guy on my block had them in this crate, she he was the last one—he said that if no one took him he'd just dump her…"

Felicity's face fell as she pulled him out from underneath her desk where she was already crawling out and onto her lap.

"I couldn't just let her go." Felicity said.

"Oh boy," Oliver shook his head and sighed. "They saw you coming a mile away, didn't they?"

"What?" She looked over her desk at him, still cuddling the pup.

He covered his mouth with his hand, and tried to hide a smile. This, it was one of the things he loved about her. Felicity Smoak was one of the few people left in Starling City whose inherent goodness had not been stamped out by the degradation of the city.

If there was one thing left worth protecting, it was that.

"Don't you think you should name her then?" Oliver asked. "She doesn't look like she should be going through life being called girl or her."

Felicity wasn't sure. Frankly, she wasn't even sure how it was she was going to keep her.

"I'm not even sure my apartment allows animals." Felicity said, "I snuck her in last night, and I brought her to work so that the super wouldn't hear her barking during the day."

"She hasn't been too bad with the barking." Oliver said, "As long as I keep my distance."

"I don't think she likes men. She didn't really like the guy who had her in the crate, she tried to bite him when he picked her up."

"Well, speaking from an experience angle." Oliver said, "We generally aren't too fond of people who try to throw us in a cage."

"You didn't come here to talk puppy with me." Felicity said, "What's up?"

"Nothing much, actually." Oliver ignored the flashdrive in his pocket.

It wasn't urgent, and her plate was clearly full.

"Don't worry about your building superintendent." He told her, "I'm sure we can negotiate."

"Negotiate?" Felicity asked, "Oliver, your negotiations tend to be heavy handed of the bow and arrow variety."

Oliver smiled.

"I can be very diplomatic." Oliver said, with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"You can't just swoop in and solve all my problems for me." Felicity told him.

She wasn't sure she wanted to consider what his definition of diplomacy was.

"Firstly, I don't 'swoop'." Oliver said, "I'm more of the sauntering type, and secondly, says who? Friends help each other, and it's clearly my turn."

Felicity shook her head. "We're a little above and beyond the helping turn, aren't we?"

"Nope." Oliver told her. "So, what's the girl's name? When I was young, my mother had a dog named Armani. It was very…_her_."

"I've always sort of liked the name Adelaide-Addy." Felicity said, "It was the name of the girl in a book I liked when I was a kid."

"She looks like an Addy." Oliver said, glancing over the desk at her. "You'll have to fall in love with me, sooner or later."

Felicity's head shot up from where she had been petting her dog sort of distractedly.

"I'll grow on her." Oliver said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

It took a second to click in her head, and Felicity realized that Oliver was talking to Adelaide—obviously. The little voice in her head berated her.

_Get your act together, the Oliver Queens of the world don't fall in love with girls like you. You're just the friend, the other sister that he likes to take care of._

"Um, what are you still doing here?" Felicity asked, "Don't you have something you should be doing?"

Oliver held up her car keys.

"I'll take you home, or to the hospital." Oliver said, "Dealer's choice."

Felicity sighed, "Okay, but for the record I'm only agreeing because I have a lot of laundry to do."

"Fantastic." Oliver said, jumping up from the seat, he lingered next to her and Addy. "Gonna give me a shot yet, girl?"

A little chill ran up her spine. _I wish_.

Addy gave him a questionable sniff.

"We'll get there." Oliver held up Felicity's coat and helped her into it.

He smiled at Felicity as he grabbed her bag, apparent deciding to carry it himself as the gentleman he was.

"Won't we?"


	11. Risk

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Risk _

_. . . _

Summary: What she really thinks.

Note: Thanks to you all for the incredible reviews, alerts, and favorites. Totally appreciating the love guys, even though I can't always get around to thanking you all individually. _GreenPhoenix3 _requested this, and I hope you all enjoy. Also, feel free to keep going with the suggestions, or requests.

. . .

"Felicity Smoak? You are Felicity Smoak, right?"

Thea Queen lingered in the hallway, looking at her in a sort of studied, reserved manner that made her appear older than her eighteen years. Then again, Felicity considered, by the time she was eighteen the most dramatic life experience she had was summer camp counselor refusing to allow her to use the phone to call her parents to bring her home.

"I—Me…um, yeah. I'm her. I mean, that's me." Felicity shook her head, trying to remember that she was actually a sufficient, grown up woman who did things like help The Hood—_God, he needed a better name—_fight crime and save people and hack into government databases. "What can I do for you—Thea, right?"

Thea reached around the door and yanked a boy in a leather jacket into her office. Felicity quickly recognized him as the boy that Oliver had saved—Roy something. He was cute in a bad boy kind of way that would have made her cross the street and lock her doors as a teenager. Or you know, maybe now…if it was late at night, and on a bad side of town.

"So I uh…I sort of know that you do things for my brother." Thea said carefully.

_Oh God. No_. Felicity felt herself start to panic, and tried to stay cool.

"Oh me? I just set up his internet at the club, and did a couple google searches for him." Felicity said, "For being on a desert island for five years he's more sufficient than you'd think. Yay for him."

_You sound like a crazy person. Shut. Up. Now._

"You're his like computer girl, look I'm not asking to know what my brother is having you look into. I don't want to know what's going on…." Thea shook her head and gestured her way. "You know, behind the desk."

"Oh my God!" Felicity jumped for a moment. "No, nope that—_that_ is not happening. You really, really have the wrong idea. Nothing—nothing is going on behind the desk…with me and your brother. With anyone!"

"Are you uh—okay?" Roy asked her, "You don't look so good."

"Rough day." Felicity said, trying to relax and not look like someone took a shot at her.

Her constitution was way too nervous to be caught betwixt Oliver and Thea like this.

_Don't ask me to spy on your brother, _Felicity begged silently to whatever entity would listen to her in her time of need. _Please, please do not ask me to spy on Oliver._

"Look, you've got this weird sexual thing going on with my brother, and you know _whatever_, he's a little strange but women don't seem to mind—actually, it would be best if my brother didn't find out about this. He was a little sensitive last time—he scared Roy."

"I wasn't scared." Roy said obstinately, "Oliver doesn't scare me. I could take him."

"Roy, quiet." Thea hissed, at the same time as Felicity let out a chuckle that slowly bubbled into a giggle.

"Sorry." She covered her mouth with her hand, dropping it and biting down on her lip nervously. "I'm sorry."

Felicity nibbled on her bottom lip, imagining the fear of God that Oliver must have put into his baby sister's boyfriend.

"We need your help. We want to find the vigilante."

Felicity let out a squeak of equal parts surprise and horror, fumbling her tablet to the ground. She was stunned further, when in a show of Oliver-esque reflexes Roy dove, catching it before it hit the ground.

He held it in his hands, offering it back to her.

"Thank you." She said in something approaching a whisper, not quite able to bring herself to take it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, Oliver was going to—Oh boy. _Deep breaths, Felicity. In, out—repeat. _Be sensible, coherent—do not babble. Use as few words as possible.

"He's not a vigilante, he's a hero." Roy corrected Thea. "You're supposed to be some sort of computer genius, could you track him? Please."

Crouching on the ground, he looked up at her and regardless of the grumbling that Oliver did about his sister's boyfriend she saw his clear blue eyes shining with a plaintive sort of request, a goodness that felt wrong to reject.

His eyes felt good and honest, the same qualities that had propelled her to help Oliver even when she knew he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

Shaking it off, Felicity took the tablet from his hands.

"Thank you." She said again, "Those are some uh…serious reflexes."

Roy shrugged, "It's nothing."

"Okay first—_oh my god_." Felicity said, trying to buy herself some time to work this out. "Do we all really think that a crime fighting dude with pointy arrows is going to be super okay with someone tracking his every move?"

_That was a no._ Felicity knew the answer to that can of worms from personal experience.

"I can pay you." Thea said, as if this solved most of the problems in the world.

And in hers, it did solve ninety-nine percent of them.

"I don't think that's the problem Thea." Roy said in a undertone.

"Oh right, _secondly_ do you think that your brother would be cool with me helping you on an expedition to find someone who made a career out of impaling people on arrows?" Felicity asked, "It sounds a little dangerous. And in this very ugly scenario, I'm much, much more frightened of your brother than The Hood…guy."

"That he'll do _what_?" Thea asked, "Upgrade the sexual chemistry to nitroglycerin and peroxide?"

"Thea." Roy said, shaking his head once. "It's okay, it was a long shot anyways. She probably couldn't do it anyways."

Felicity felt a little bristle in her pride, and struggled to stomach it and push it down to some dark hidden place where it wouldn't get the better of her.

"Guys," Felicity sighed, taking her glasses off and trying her best at being a persuasive grown-up. "You know, it's a beautiful day and there is a really great sorbet place down the street."

Thea folded her arms across her chest.

"How about you help us find the Hood guy, or you can—"

"Can what?" Oliver interjected, leaning against the door and glancing between Felicity and Thea.

"Nice to see you again, Roy." He looked past his sister at her boyfriend and quirked an eyebrow in question to Felicity.

"Do you _knock_?" Thea asked, turning to glare at her brother. "This is private."

_Ha! _Felicity thought, with a little sense of victory.

Oliver tapped his hand above the name on the door, "It says Felicity Smoak, not Thea Queen."

Felicity rolled her eyes, great new excuse.

"Company employees don't exist as your personal assistants, Thea." Oliver said firmly, "You want to tell me what this is about?"

"Nope. Not actually." Thea said, re-crossing her arms over her chest. "You want to tell me your business, Ollie?"

"Thea was just looking for help locating an old friend." Felicity said, covering for the conversation until she could talk to Oliver alone. "I'll see what I can do."

"Well, isn't that generous of her." Oliver declared, stepping in and clearing the doorway. "It's a school night Roy, so if you can get Thea home at a reasonable time..."

"Of course." Roy said.

Thea walked past, giving her brother a dirty look.

"Stop trying to act like dad, Ollie. You're not him."

Roy slipped out quietly after her, and Oliver reached behind him to close the door.

"Well, _that_ was a fun break from my work—you know that I'm actually paid for." Felicity said, gesturing his way with her pen.

"Funny, that's why I'm here." Oliver said.

"Oh so you weren't just here for the verbal lashing from you little sister?"

"I do so love it when you decide to be funny." Oliver told her, with a slight smile. "What did Thea really want?"

"Oh nothing much," Felicity said, looking away from Oliver and focusing very intently on the screen filled with code in front of her.

_Just another day in Starling City, really_, Felicity thought with a touch of irony.

"She just wanted me to track down The Hood for her and her boyfriend."

"_What_?"

"Was that a hypothetical….?" Felicity gestured, pointing at him curiously, "Or do you really want me to say it again?"

Oliver mouth formed a firm, very displeased line.

"What did you tell her?" Oliver asked, a flicker of annoyance in his eyes.

"Oh, and _there_ it is." Felicity said, "That was exactly what I told her I should be afraid of."

"What?"

"Nothing." Felicity shook her head.

"This is all Roy's fault." Oliver said, "He's a bad influence, all he's done is get her into trouble. This obsession of his—"

"Just for the record, because I have a soft place in my heart, as it appears…" Felicity sighed, "He's a very nice boy. Roy was very polite, and not that you asked me—"

"I didn't." Oliver interjected smoothly, "But please, tell me what it was in the five minutes that you spent with him that has brought you to the conclusion that he is such a good guy."

Oliver reclined back in the chair, waiting for the answer with an expectant look on his face.

"Because you've known him so long, and on such a personal level?" Felicity shot back.

"_Felicity_." Oliver leaned forward, and shook his head in something akin to disappointment-like she was a misguided child.

She huffed,

"You want to know what it was that made me decide to help you and not turn you into the cops, or take you to the warehouse when you were shot and not to the hospital, or to not call the cops when you brought me black arrows, and funny green syringes, or completely illegal—"

"You're avoiding answering the question." Oliver said, raising his eyebrow at her.

"Fine!" Felicity slammed her hands down on her desk, internalizing the 'ow'. "You _want_ to know what I really think?"

_Because he sure as hell was not going to like it._

"Please." Oliver gestured for her to proceed, a small smile was behind his words. "I'm on pins and needles."

"I think that you are a supercilious hypocrite! Whenever someone brings up that guy, you seem to think that the only thing that is important is that you mark your territory, and claim your sister as staunchly yours even though she's an adult. I think that you dislike him because he is probably the first guy of any sort of character, of any sort of serious threat to you when it comes to asserting your dominance as number one in Thea's heart—and I think that you're a little bit of a..._jerk_ for not extending him the benefit of the doubt when you expect people to give it to you."

"Don't hold anything back." Oliver said, eyes wide in surprise.

"I'm not done yet!" Felicity snapped at him, but seemed to lose her voice never mind of train of thought when she realized how far off the reservation she had just gone.

Oliver sat there in silence for a moment. "Done now?"

"I trusted you, because I looked into your eyes and above everything else that I read or heard or thought about The Hood and even Oliver Queen…" Felicity swallowed, losing her edge slightly. "I looked into your eyes and I knew that you were sincere and genuine, and the rest of it didn't count for anything."

"Okay." Oliver said softly, nodding his head. "I think you've made your point."

"You're not going to tell them?" Felicity panicked for a moment, thinking that she'd gone too far. She wasn't sure that deciding Roy had genuine eyes was enough to risk the big secret.

_She really didn't bank on risking Oliver's live based on her predominance of trusting sincere blue eyes._

"No, absolutely not." Oliver said, "That would be crazy."

_Thanks god. _Felicity let out a sight of relief.

There was a long pause of silence between them, Felicity lost in thought over the burst of emotion that she had just vented.

"I have sincere eyes?" Oliver said finally, a smile teasing at the corner of his mouth.

"Shut up." Felicity tossed a pad of post-it's at him, catching herself smiling back at him.

She pointed at him, smiling still, "I wasn't wrong."

"Neither was I." Oliver said pointedly. "You were worth the risk."

. . .

_Oliver walking in on Thea and Felicity talking_


	12. Date Night II

More Interrupts Than Coitus

_Date Night II_

. . .

Summary: Of all the nights. Oliver's timing was impeccably bad.

_Note_: Thanks again to everyone for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts. I really appreciate all the love! _quisinart4_ suggested this one. Also, just a heads up—I'm going to be on vacation in Montreal from the 26-30 of this month so there won't be any more updates after the 25th until I get back.

. . .

"All these things that I am constantly learning about you," Oliver said, shaking his head and leaning against the door to her balcony.

He brushed his hands against the sheer curtain that hang above, ducking his head out of the draping fabric, and crossing the room with a smile.

"Oliver!" Felicity exclaimed, dropping her mascara from her hand and having to stoop to the ground to pick it up. "You scared the hell out of me!"

_At least she would have, but his habit of popping up unannounced had seriously impaired her fear impulse. _

It was getting to the point, should someone break into her home to kill her, she'd offer them a drink.

"What? With that vicious monster?" Oliver gestured the mop of fur that was at her feet growling and baring her teeth at him.

"Down girl."

Addy barked at him, as if to prove her dominance.

"You could be an entree on someone's plate. I know a place."

Felicity ignored the exchange between Oliver and Adelaide and continued to apply her lipstick in front of the mirror in her living room. She hadn't had a reason to buy new lipstick in a while, and she was hoping the night would prove worth a trip to the Macy's cosmetics counter.

As usual, Oliver's timing was less than excellent-which was to be expected when someone just dropped in as they pleased. She was so glad that they had made the transition from him barging in on her in her office, to doing so at her home so effortlessly.

Now, for some people this might have been awkward, Felicity conceded this point as she capped her lipstick and slipped it in her evening bag—_also new_. Not so for Oliver. He made scaling a girl's apartment building and letting himself in via the balcony look as easy _nigh, easier_, than taking the elevator and knocking on the door.

She brushed some invisible wrinkles out of her dress and pulled off her glasses.

"Maybe she's put off by the fact that strange men hardly break in through the balcony." Felicity said with a note of irony, "You think?"

"You can't really call it breaking in." Oliver said, "The door was cracked open, and on that note, you should be more careful. Anyone could have come in."

"Anyone, huh?" Felicity shot back, letting the words linger in the air.

_Of all the nights. _She sighed, this was going to get awkward.

He slid the door shut, tossing Addy a treat from his pocket. She chewed it up and rolled over allowing him to rub her belly, which he did, before picking her up.

Felicity switched to her contacts, blinking as they were in and feeling a little touch of nerves. This was her first real date, the kind with any sort of serious potential in far longer than her pride would allow her to admit.

"Felicity," Oliver looked her over. "You're all dressed up. What's the occasion?"

"You did not just notice that!" Felicity said, with look of incredulity at him as he held up the puppy scratching its belly; Addy looking up at him gratefully.

_Well, there went one more strong, confident woman under the spell of Oliver Queen. Traitor_. Felicity thought.

"Oliver!"

She couldn't believe it. Well, it wasn't like it had escaped her attention that she was not in fact Laurel Lance, but she thought at the very least he would notice that she looked pretty. Maybe even tell her so.

"You look stunning." Oliver said, weaseling out of the awkward situation with his charm. "Going to the benefit downtown-you know, I wasn't planning on going, but I could get my tux and accompany you...these functions can get dull."

He shrugged, "If you want some company."

"Wow." Felicity said, with an incredulous shake of her head, as she slipped into her shoes. "Thank you so much for the kind donation to the Felicity Smoak charity case, but as shocking as it is, I am capable of getting my own dates."

"I wasn't—I mean…" Oliver voice trailed off, seemingly taken aback when she snapped at him. "I didn't mean it like that."

Felicity tugged the other shoe on just as her doorbell rang.

"There he is." She said, still feeling a little inflamed by the patronizing offer.

"Who?" Oliver asked, his voice a little tight as he questioned her.

_A guy who actually wants to date me_, Felicity thought, feeling a little nervous at the prospect of a guy this…filled with potential.

He set Adelaide on the couch.

"Anyone I know? From Verdant, or the company?" Oliver walked around the couch as he quizzed her on her date. "Did you meet him during the Deadmau5 show last week?"

Felicity sighed, and rolled her eyes. This was Oliver, and Oliver was not going to just let it go.

"I wasn't aware the Spanish Inquisition had rolled back on in." She said dryly.

She went to open the door, and turned on her heel abruptly.

"Look, this is sort of important to me. Don't…" She bit down on her lip, "Just, be nice, okay?"

She turned back around, and pulled the door open.

Nathaniel Fordham was handsome in the Guess model sort of way. Tall and muscular, with high angular cheekbones and a charming, dimpled smile—it had made her melt.

"Hi Nate, come on in, I'll be ready to go in one second." Felicity rushed, eager to minimize any contact between the very hot CEO of Fordham Consortium and the equally hot and currently glowering billionaire that seemed to turn into a simmering stone statue. "This is my friend—"

"Oliver Queen!" Nate supplied, with a grin. "Long time no see. I was glad to hear that you returned from the dead—I didn't know we had a friend in common though. Ollie, I tried to call for ages once I head you were back, but you never returned my calls."

He gestured to Felicity with a smile.

"You two know each other?" Felicity gestured between them, not seeing a look of much like, never mind love, on Oliver's face.

She swallowed a little nervously, "Isn't that nice?"

_This was what she got for thinking she could actually have a nice date on her night off._

"Know each other?" Nathaniel clapped Oliver on the back. "We go back so far! Oliver was one of the best guys back at school—man, the stories—remember the time you and Tommy—"

"You know, I'd hate to make you two late." Oliver said tersely.

"Oh, right." Nathaniel turned to Felicity, "Ready to go? You look incredible."

Felicity said a little prayer of thanks. They were actually making it out of there in one piece, and Oliver was…well, not saying much which was an improvement over being big brother-ed to death by him.

"I'm all set." She glance to Oliver, "Have a good night. Make sure you close the door for Addy."

Nathaniel wrapped his arm around her waist, and gave Oliver a wave and a little grin as they left.

"Nice seeing you man."

. . .

As Felicity walked out of the door, her golden shawl wrapped around her shoulders, pocketbook in hand, and Nathaniel's arm wrapped around her waist Oliver fumed, consumed by equal parts jealousy and concern. The way that Felicity was looking at Nathaniel, well…the last time he saw her looking at someone like that it was—

_You, you idiot, _the voice in his head berated him. Another successful shot at failure, way to go. The girl only liked you for the last six months. Anytime over the course of the last six months you could have taken a shot, could have let her know that you liked her—

Addy barked at him, interrupting his chain of thought.

"There's a perfectly nice Chinese place down the block," Oliver told him, "You don't want to know what they do to dogs like you."

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, and dialed Tommy.

"Hey Tommy—yeah, I know the charity ball is tonight. I need a favor." Oliver sighed, "Do I still have a tux at you place?"

Oliver crossed the room over to the balcony, and watched as they drove off in a limo.

"Great." Oliver said, when Tommy confirmed that it was indeed in the closet. "Can you take it and leave it at the front desk?"

Oliver locked the balcony door, tossing Addy another treat before slipping out the front door of her apartment.

"One other thing." He locked the door behind him, "Nate's blowing back through town. He's with Felicity—keep an eye on him, will you?"

He shut the door behind him and pulled out the keys to his bike.

"You're the best." Oliver said when Tommy promised he would. "Thanks."

. . .

_**Oliver walks in on Felicity prepping for a date._


	13. Escalating

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Escalating _

_. . . _

Summary: She was trying to protect him. Again.

Note: Okay, in the interest of (1) keeping to the point of this series, and (2) I couldn't possibly deny the two dozen or so of you demanding more (and I'm a people pleaser) I will be uploading an extended one-shot of the previous chapter, Date Night II as a separate story either tonight or tomorrow. A large portion of it was already written before I chopped it up to use as a one-shot and thus with some editing and re-writing it'll be up either late tonight, or sometime tomorrow.

Also, thank you to everyone as always for the love. Though I can't get around to thanking everyone individually, I really appreciate it. _bolderthings _requested this one.

_. . . _

"No, it's very important—"

Felicity stressed, with a note of hysteria in her tone.

"Ms. Smoak, we understand and we are going to do everything we can to help you but with the information you've given us...I'm not going to—"

"Excuse me," Felicity said her voice filled with a nervous panicked edge. "Please Detective it is urgent that I go and—"

Detective Lance interrupted Felicity, and Oliver glanced inside the room, worried that he had finally gotten her in trouble, but deciding that it was that much worse when he saw the two detectives, a member of the security team, and Felicity at her desk holding a bright blue ice pack against her head.

_What had he done?_

Oliver rapped on the door sharply.

"Felicity?"

"Oliver Queen." Detective Quentin Lance sighed deeply, looking at him with eyes filled with contempt as he held his notepad down. "Well, a crime goes down in Starling City and here you are. I really shouldn't be surprised anymore."

"He does um—it is his company." Felicity swallowed, gesticulating with her ice pack and wincing as she looked nervously betwixt Detective Lance and Oliver.

And here she was again, trying to protect him. He didn't deserve a friend like her.

"Felicity, are you okay?" Oliver assessed her carefully, noting a couple cuts on her face, the blackish-blue bruise on her cheekbone and the tear in her sweater.

_Obviously not_, he decided, with a mounting ire.

"I'll be fine." Felicity said, her voice trembling a little.

Well, of course she was scared. These kinds of things didn't happen in her life before she got mixed up with him. This was exactly why he was so deathly serious when he told Roy to keep his sister away from The Hood.

"What happened here?" Oliver asked.

_It sure as hell wasn't happening again._

"There was an incident in the parking garage as Ms. Smoak tells it." Detective Lance said, flipping the notebook open. "Correct me if I've got anything wrong miss, but you were heading to your car on level E, when someone—you think that it was a man, about six feet, muscular with dark blonde hair—grabbed you from behind, and you scuffled…"

_Of course she fought back, _Oliver thought_. Digg was right. He'd been banking on the fact that he'd be there to protect her from any threat, the most vulnerable member of their team—but he couldn't be everywhere._

_He needed to have done this better, and he hadn't. The people he cared about couldn't be harmed because of him._

"You know," Detective Lance gestured to Oliver. "For all I know you could be describing him."

"I don't think that's helpful." Oliver said, glancing to David, the head of security. "Make sure you get the detective a copy of the security footage."

"Yes, Mr. Queen." David nodded his head.

"I uh…hit him. Tried?" Felicity winced a little as she gestured, "Palm to the nose…he grabbed my wrist and threw me against my car. When I woke up, he was gone and so was my bag."

"And what sort of valuables were in it?" Detective Lance asked.

"My laptop." Felicity said, "My wallet, maybe fifty dollars cash and some credit cards. A little bit of makeup. That's all."

Detective Lance nodded his head, "We'll see what we can do. Honestly though, in most of these cases the items don't turn back up, and neither does the thief."

"Thank you for coming." Oliver said, "I appreciate it."

"You know, I didn't know you came to the aid of all your employees." Detective Lance said. "I'm sure we've got a few more of them in the drunk tank, it is Friday."

Oliver didn't respond the statement, knowing that Lance was trying to get a rise out of him. Some things would never change, and as long as he had Sarah's blood on his hands—it would always be this way.

He was too worried about Felicity to bite.

"Ms. Smoak is a close family friend." Oliver said brusquely, "Is that all?"

"We'll be in touch." Detective Lance said to Felicity before turning to Oliver, "Since you're such intimate friends, Ms. Smoak declined an ambulance to get looked over, maybe you want to make sure the young lady is okay?"

"You can be sure I'll make sure she receives all the necessary care." Oliver said tersely, Lance wouldn't make him feel any worse than he already did.

David ushered the detectives out of the office, and closed the door behind himself.

"Please stop looking at me like that." Felicity said, "We have much more serious…problems."

"I agree." Oliver didn't miss the little flicker of pain in her eyes as she moved her arm away from her chest.

"I'm serious." Felicity said, setting the ice pack down on her desk. "That was my personal laptop, I was using it to update the framework for our computers at Verdant—oh my god…"

She moaned in a sort of horror over the situation.

"How could I have been so stupid?"

"You weren't." Oliver said, as he walked around the desk. "This wasn't your fault Felicity. We will deal with it if we must."

Oliver didn't really care about the computers right now. Felicity's well-being meant a lot more to him than their network.

He took her hand, noticing the way she shirked back in discomfort when he moved her arm.

"I think it's just sprained," he said, letting go of her wrist gently, "I don't like the look of that cut above your eyebrow. You were knocked out, so that's definitely getting looked at."

Oliver nodded his head once.

He'd take her to Dr. Benhazi, she'd see her immediately and take good care of her.

"Oliver, I can take myself to the hospital." Felicity said, "You're in the middle of trying to save the city."

"It's on a more personal level tonight." Oliver said, "I'm not leaving you alone tonight, I don't like the look of you."

"Oh, I'm so flattered," Felicity said as she got up, "You always say the sweetest things, Oliver."

"Let's try it this way." Oliver said, handing her the ice pack, and refusing to debate the topic any longer. "Until we resolve this problem, I'm not letting you out of my sight. You'll stay at the mansion tonight."

He'd be dammed if he was going to let this escalate any further than it did.

"Oh no, whoa!" Felicity turned on her heel and looked at him with a shake of her head. "Because you see I am totally capable on my own, and I don't need you to play babysitter because there are way bigger—overarching issues to deal with. Plus, I happen to have an apartment that I'm incredibly fond of, and a puppy who pees on my floors if I'm gone for an extended period of time—do you see where I'm going, Oliver?"

"I don't like it very much." Oliver told her, "So I'm going to choose to ignore it."

"See, I know that you're really good at hearing what you want, but I'll go and get my wrist wrapped, take a couple aspirin and go home and watch bad tv…I can take a break." Felicity nodded her head as if trying to convince herself of this fact as she cradled her arm. "I've done it before…once."

"Fine." Oliver said, never as disgruntled as Felicity made him.

A woman had never made him work so hard to take care of her.

"Have it your way." Oliver told her, "I'll send over Digg to look after you."

"Oliver!"

Felicity stamped her foot down in the hall, and it was like all the nervous tension that was bundled up inside of his body unraveled. He felt the laugh catch in his throat, completely thrown to see her do something so comically, cartoonishly female.

"Oliver, I'm a grown woman." Felicity said, "I've taken care of myself for the last twenty-five years. I'm fine."

"Felicity," Oliver started her down as he ushered her into the elevator.

Her eyes widened slightly as he loomed over her. Oliver took a breath, pressing his hands against the wall and looking down on her.

"There is nothing you can say to me that will stop me from keeping you safe." He said in a quiet voice. "I'm not letting anything happen to you again, do you have anything else to say about that?"

Felicity made a little, unintelligible sound in her throat as she nodded her head.

_Of course, _Oliver thought.

"You forget to press the button." Felicity said in a quiet voice, "Maryann from HR, and Doreen from reception are staring at us."

Biting down on his lip, Oliver turned to give them a terse smile and a wave before punching the ground floor button, the two of them traveling downward in a state of something new to the two of them together—silence.

"You're probably right." Felicity said, "I'll stay at the mansion for a couple of days. It'll be easier to update our firewalls from there."

Oliver nodded his head in agreement, "That's good."

"Besides, Digg has better things to do than watch me update code." Felicity added.

Oliver tried to hide the smile at the corners of his mouth, and as he looked sideways at her and saw the blackish-blue bruise under her eye his mouth formed a stony line. He was going to find who did this, and they would face justice.

Whether it was just chance that she had been mugged, or it was something to do with The Hood, it was now his first priority.

. . .

_Her request was for hurt/comfort, but it's not exactly my strong suit so…this will likely be the last of that genre._


	14. Devil's in the Details

More Interrupts Than Coitus

_Devil's in the Details _

. . .

Summary: Oliver needs a date

Note: Sorry this one took so long to get posted! I've been all wrapped up in finishing the extended version of Date Night II (reposted as Collision) and then I remembered last minute that I promised to run like, 23455677890 errands for my mother, so bad on me. Hope you all like this one, and I'm hoping to get through one more and get it posted before I leave for Montreal. Hope you enjoy, and as always thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts!

. . .

"Felicity, I need a date." Oliver declared as he walked into her office.

"Christ Jesus," A tall brunette declared, as she gathered a pile of folders from atop a cabinet, her back to Oliver. "If I had a dime for every time I had to hear that. You'll have to get it line."

Oliver raised his eyebrows, more than a little stunned by the incredibly blunt response. _Wait? Were there other guys coming around here for Felicity's help? Of course there are, she's the best in the division—well, she's also very cute._

This woman, who was very clearly not Felicity turned and nearly dropped her armful of folders.

"Mr. Queen, oh my god!" Her brown eyes went wide, "I'm so sorry. I assumed you were—not—not you."

"I'm me." Oliver said, eyes knitted together in surprise. "Where is Felicity?"

"I'm her assistant, sir. One of them, at least…" She said, seeming kerflummoxed still. "Erica James…um, please—please don't fire me."

Oliver chuckled, as he walked into the room.

"I'm sorry for startling you, Felicity always tells me I need to knock."

"Oh!" Erica laughed, "So you're _that_ guy!"

"There's others?" Oliver asked, in a sort of stunned surprise.

Erica snapped her mouth shut like she realized it should have been her policy from the very beginning. He stood there, waiting expectantly and figured she'd break down sooner or later. _Felicity talks about you, _Oliver thought, pretending that it didn't entertain him at all.

"Felicity is the only hot blonde who fixes tech problems." Erica said, "She's very popular—apparently the CFO has weekly issues with his router and only Felicity can fix it."

Erica laughed, "She never told me that the infamous Oliver Queen was one of the people she worked with. I mean, I know this is Queen Consolidated, but I figured you had more important…"

"Felicity is a good friend." Oliver explained, not sure how he felt about all these men who apparently came around for Felicity. He'd speak to the CFO she didn't need to waste her time at his beck and call.

"Right. I mean, of course. I'm sorry." Erica adjusted the folders in her arms, looking him over curiously. "I can page Felicity. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to wait on her. Sir."

Oliver laughed, shaking his head. As a matter of fact, he was sure that Felicity would enjoy making him wait this time.

"Just go on with your work, Felicity is worth waiting on. I'm used to it."

"Yes sir." Erica said, tucking her long brown hair behind her ear. "Pleasure meeting you. Sorry about the um…everything."

"You as well, Ms. James." Oliver shook her hand, and laughed. "I'm sorry for startling you."

Erica left, and Oliver waited for a moment before settling in and picking up the magazine sitting on her desk, flipping through the glossy pages while he waited. Funny, she hadn't struck him as the fashion magazine type. As he scanned the pages, he realized that there was a page toward the back marked with a post-it.

He flipped to the page, and found a pretty green dress—_a Herrera, his mother would be impressed with her taste—_and nodded his head. Felicity would look good in green.

Oliver mentally pocketed the image in his head, because you never knew.

. . .

After rebooting Mr. Jones' computer, Felicity headed back to her office feeling a little enflamed. This was the fourth time this month, and there were a couple dozen people who were perfectly qualified enough to do that—people who did not have a mountain of work to do, and a billionaire vigilante to manage.

Her plate was full.

She was mumbling under her breath, none of the words to generous in regard to Mr. Jones, and slammed her office door shut behind her.

"Take your arrogant platitudes and put them where the sun doesn't shine!" Felicity huffed, swiveling around on her heel and gasping as she saw Oliver.

"And she has a dark side." Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her, "And I thought all you did in your spare time was read magazines?"

Oliver held up the copy of Bazaar she had brought in to show Erica the dress she wanted to get in some dream world where she ran out to the store and bought a three-thousand dollar dress because the fancy struck her.

"Spare time?" Felicity yanked the magazine out of Oliver's hand and shoved in into her desk drawer. "You mean all the free time I have in-between fixing people's routers, and repairing their tablets?"

She slammed the drawer shut, and looked at Oliver,

"Or all the free time I have in between updating the framework at Verdant, _and_ writing a new firewall system so the next person who tries to hack into our computers falls into the oblivion trying to backpedal their way out of the black hole of viruses—you mean all that free time."

Oliver held his hands up in surrender, "You have no free time. You are a generous golden goddess who treats me better than I deserve, and I'm blessed to just have you on my side."

_Damn straight he was_, Felicity thought with a huff, dropping down in her chair, feeling a little bit ruffled by his charming words and smiles.

"You can't just ply me with compliments and expect me to forgive you for that." Felicity said.

"Well, there always will be diamonds and flowers." Oliver said.

As she glared at him, making crystal clear that after the day she was having he wasn't helping the situation he shook his head.

"Right. No." Oliver looked at her, tilting his head and smiling a little. "Feel better yet?"

"No!" Felicity said in a huff, but unable to quite resist those sparkling baby blues and alluring smile.

_Why are you even getting angry with Oliver? It's not his fault._

"Yes." She said in a small voice, a little embarrassed with herself for spewing her frustrations all over him. "You stepped in the line of fire."

"I need a date." Oliver said, his eyes twinkling in a way that almost made her think this was some kind of a joke.

"Come again?" Felicity asked.

"I need to get access to Peter Dietrich, but he stays all walled up in his mansion."

"That…usually isn't a problem for you." Felicity said, "Are you losing your grip?"

Oliver really was too fun to tease when his capabilities as master and commander of the world was at stake.

"Of course not. I want to try speaking to him as Oliver before The Hood has to put an arrow in him." Oliver said.

"Good boy." Felicity said, "You're seeing the light?"

"He's having a party tonight." Oliver pulled the invitation from his jacket pocket and showed it to Felicity. "Black tie, very political. Rumor has it that his wife is running for Senate, and this is going to be her introductory party."

"Well, even evil people have to concede to their significant other—I'm sorry, what is he on the list for?" Felicity asked, it really was tough to keep all the names straight.

_It was a pretty invitation, at least._

She needed a database for them or something.

"He made his millions by divesting the savings of good people in this city, they lost everything and he got a few million dollars richer. There's not proof of it however and—"

"And he's in the book." Felicity said, "I'm not seeing what the problem is, you get dolled up, have a nice night outside of the basement and dark alleys…it sounds nice."

"I'm glad you feel that way." Oliver said, tucking the invitation back in his jacket. "Because I can't attend without a date. It would look too suspicious."

"So…" Felicity gestured a little vaguely between them, and then to herself. "Me? You want me to be your black tie bimbo?"

"I wouldn't have used those words." Oliver said, "But I do need you to accompany me."

"I—" Felicity shook her head, "I wouldn't have anything to wear."

"I thought you might say that." Oliver said. "I'll have a dress delivered to your apartment."

"You don't know my size." Felicity said, feeling a little smug on that point. "What about Thea? You know—she's an heiress, way better suited for the fancy."

"Firstly, please don't _ever_ suggest that I use my sister in a date capacity." Oliver said, as if this was a real date in any sort of context.

_Which, even if she did go, it wasn't. This was business—oh, well that sounded wrong. If this was just business that would make her a hooker. It was a friend, helping a friend…? Stop while you're behind._

"Secondly, you're a brilliant, beautiful woman and exactly what I need."

_No, no, no. He is not going to charm you into this._

Felicity groaned as his baby blues burned through her.

"Fine. _Fine_, I'll do it."

"You're magnificent." Oliver said with a wide smile, "What would I do without you Felicity?"

"Crash and burn?" Felicity smiled at him, shaking her head.

Not being able to say no to Oliver Queen was going to get her in trouble one of these days.

"Oliver!" Felicity stopped him at her door, "You still don't know my size."

He grinned, looking her over.

"Don't worry about it, I've got a good eye."

"Well…okay." Felicity watched as he took off.

What was he doing? Rummaging through her underwear drawer when she wasn't home?

She picked up her phone and called down to Erin, leaving a message on her voicemail.

"Erin, I have to leave early today. Keep an eye out for Mr. Adams, and Stephanie Moran will be coming down to IT to get the results from the hard drive."

Felicity hung up her phone, and settled down in her chair for five seconds of peace and quiet. She figured she better try and get it all in now, because a night with Oliver was bound to be anything but boring.


	15. Exposed

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Exposed_

. . .

Summary: Everyone was overexposed.

Note: This will be the last post before I take off for Montreal. I'm hoping to get the one-shot spin off from the previous chapter up as well (Devil's in the Details) up before I leave. Also, I swear to god someone suggested the idea that gave me the opening of this story and I can not find where I made a not—but I know, know, _know_ someone said it! URGH! So, just remind me so I can give you the credit for that. After this chapter I really want to try and incorporate some of the other characters some more, evolve the Olicity relationship in the midst of everyone (Tommy. Tommy. Tommy.) While still keeping true to the "Don't you knock" theme. It'll give me something to think about by the pool.

Again, and as always, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts. It really does mean the world that you guys like this. And that you gave me an excuse to stare at a picture of Stephen Amell in his shirtless glory whilst I decided what his skin tone was exactly.

Also, I'm really curious about what other characters you'd like to see worked into the stories the most, so hit me up with that. I know I'm not the only one with a rampant Tommy obsession.

. . .

Felicity clapped her hands over her face, but the sight of Oliver naked, toned body under the fluorescent lights made her freeze as it seemed to flow through her fingers.

_What are you doing? What are you—turn around. Turn around. TURN AROUND THE BLESSED GORGEOUS MAN IS NAKED. This is not appropriate co-worker behavior._

She'd seen him shirtless before, even partially naked, and glistening with sweat as his muscles quivered under his ivory skin, but…

_Felicity, he's six feet tall, what did you expect?_

Almost as if Oliver could sense what she was thinking, he eyes burning through his bare flesh he pulled his pants free from over the stall and shielded himself with them.

"Felicity!" Oliver's voice seemed to alter in pitch just a note higher.

"Oh! Oh my god!" Felicity turned on her heel, feeling her cheeks flush with burning mortification, snapping out of the daze when he called her name. "I am so sorry."

"Felicity!" Oliver exclaimed, "This is the men's room, what in the name of god are you doing?"

She turned again, without seeming to think about it, and felt her entire body turning into a tingly burning mush.

_Yep_. Still all sorts of naked.

"You said you were going outside and I didn't see you. I wanted to make sure you were okay." The words came out in a high-pitched semi-hysterical squeak, "I heard noise in the bathroom, and I wanted to make sure…"

"It's the men's room!"

"Like you knock?" Felicity rejoined, still covering her eyes in case her body whipped around again of its own lunatic accord.

Her brain could not seem to stop buzzing, reminding her that she was within touching distance—easily. It was also reminding her how incredibly strong, and solid his body was.

_Oh my god._

"On your office door!" Oliver exclaimed, breaking through her inner monologue effectively. "Not the men's room."

"Technically, you're a um…guy. So you wouldn't—wouldn't need to knock on the men's room." Felicity cleared her throat.

_He probably didn't need to know that. _

"Thank you, I'm aware that I'm male." Oliver said.

"Well that makes two of us." Felicity realized exactly what she said as it left her mouth. "I should…oh, I should go and fix something. Anything. Pour a drink maybe."

"Anything else." Oliver said as she walked away. "Literally anything else, Felicity. Anywhere else."

The door swung open, and Felicity ducked the door in time as Thea walked in and Oliver exclaimed loudly,

"For the love of God, this is the men's room. Not Grand Central Station!"

"Oh…ew." Thea looked away from her brother quickly, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Gross Ollie, put on some pants for god's sake. There are girls in here. That is just…ew!"

"I was looking for you." She said turning to Felicity, and pointing as summarily she totally ignored Oliver. "You're the google genius, and I know you help Oliver anytime he needs something smart—"

"Thea, Felicity, can you _please_ take it into the club!" Oliver yelled. "Just let me get dressed!"

"Don't be such a big baby." Thea said, rolling her eyes and grabbing Felicity's arm, pulling her into the club area with the door to the bathroom swinging behind them.

"Don't worry about him." Thea laughed, "He used to be the same way when we were kids. Our nanny gave us baths together until he was in middle school—you didn't hear it from me."

Thea pointed at her fiercely.

"Not a word." Felicity held her hands up in surrender, not quite able to blink away yet the crystal clear image in her mind of Oliver and his body.

_How did these things happen? She thought it was supposed to be a good day—well, considering your perspective—No!_ Felicity sighed, she needed to chill out seriously.

"He's only in such a state because you were in there." Thea said, raising her eyebrow at Felicity meaningfully, "Oliver never changes."

"Huh? No," Felicity saw what his sister was insinuating. "We're just friends."

Maybe a drink wasn't a bad idea.

"Hey whatever your story is." Thea said with a shrug. "I know chemistry when I see it, and you two have enough to blow this place to smithereens."

"You needed help." Felicity said, her voice cracking out of nerves as she changed the subject. "What did you need help with?"

At the bar, she flipped her laptop open.

"I want to find someone." Thea said, "And it's probably better that we keep it between the two of us, Oliver can be a little sensitive about…well everything. And this involves the two people he hates the most."

"Oh. Oh boy." Felicity shirked away, so this was what they meant when they said out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Roy and I are trying to find The Hood, and I think you can help me find him."

"Oh boy." Felicity said again, in a little voice feeling a little wave of panicked nerves.

They had been on this merry go round once before, and she didn't enjoy it the first time around. She knew for a fact she wasn't going to like it any better this time.

"Right, okay. Well….this is going to take time. A lot of time." Felicity said, hoping to stumble on an excuse at some point before Oliver was out of the bathroom. "But are you sure? Isn't he supposed to be dangerous? It sounds like this might be dangerous for you and your friend."

"Honestly?" Thea set her purse down and looked up at Felicity. "I'm not convinced that this Hood guy is a hero that he's anything more than a Robin Hood on amphetamines, but he saved Roy, and Roy thinks that he's a savior to the city. I believe in Roy though, and if he thinks that this guy is…well that, and what he wants is to talk to him. I'm onboard."

"Oh wow. You really love him." Felicity said softly.

_This was going to be her downfall. She was a sucker for a sad story, after all this was how you ended how donating three hundred dollars to the starving Rwandan babies that was actually a pyramid scheme. Do not be gullible._

"Haven't you ever fallen in love with someone else's mission?" Thea asked, leaning in close and looking up at her with a flicker of desperation in her eyes. "If being with him means being his sidekick, taking on his mission—I'm with him. One hundred percent."

_Crap._

"Yeah." Felicity smiled, feeling all of her resistances crumble as she looked down at her screen. "I know what you mean."

"Great." Thea said, grabbing her purse up from the counter and slipping it over her shoulder. "I'd better go. Thanks for anything you can do to help, Felicity. I knew I could trust you."

Thea gave her a hug, squeezing her shoulders tightly before turning and leaving with a bounce in her step, darting out of the club, probably in a hurry to tell Roy that she was onboard.

_Oh…damn. _

As Thea exited the building, Felicity sighed—it hadn't been complicated enough before? She hadn't already been up to her ears in it? Had she really not been trying to hold together her complicated life with luck and selective ignorance?

"Where did Thea go?" Oliver asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

Felicity jumped where she was standing, and turned to see Oliver hovering over her—fully clothed. Well, that was good. Clothes were definitely good at this complicated portion of their friendship. He was smiling as he poured a scotch.

_Well, his mood improved._ She thought begrudgingly. _She hoped he didn't mind that she was going to completely trash it. _

"Good question—but I've got a better one." Felicity said, skirting out of Oliver's space a little. "First, you know the old adage about treating the messenger kindly, and secondly who is The Hood, and where does a girl find him?"

"I thought we just did that," Oliver gestured to the bathroom, a spirited grin on his face. "Back there."

"Oh ha ha, now you're a funny guy." Felicity said, thinking that next time Digg should have to bear the bad news. She missed being the good news girl. She liked being good news girl. "Your sister and Roy just took off. She asked me to to um…"

For a second, Felicity considered not telling him, but it went completely against everything their relationship stood for; as much as she believed in Thea's mission to help her boyfriend…it was a total betrayal of the trust Oliver has extended her.

She couldn't do it.

She sighed, "You know, breaking someone's trust goes against _everything_ I believe in. Right down to my core."

Felicity pointed, a little too harshly to emphasize her point, and hit Oliver in the chest. _God, that was hard._

"Everything, Oliver. It violated everything I believe in, like people being good to each other, and paying your taxes, and slowing down at yellow lights!"

"Felicity, what's going on?" Oliver asked, taking her by the shoulders and waiting for her to cool down.

He looked her over, his gaze burning through her. "Is Thea is some kind of danger? Are you okay?"

"You tell me." Felicity said a little weakly, "She wants to find The Hood."

"Oh…crap." Oliver groaned, dropping his arms from her side. "You told her no, right?"

Felicity cringed, and shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut before he could do that angry thing and make her feel like a criminal because she stood there and listened.

"Felicity!"

"It was a very convincing argument! I'm very bad at saying no!" Felicity retorted defensively.

She found it hard to criticize Thea when they were making the same decisions—more or less—for the same reasons.

"She gave me this sad, wistful little look and talked about love and mission and—"

"Roy." Oliver said, his lips set in a firm line, his tone icy. "Damn that kid."

"He thinks you're a hero." Felicity said quietly, half-waiting for him to punch something.

"That's because he's a dumb kid." Oliver said, fists clenching and unclenching at his side out of pure frustration.

"I…" Felicity's voice trailed off as she couldn't bring herself to form her sentence.

"What?" Oliver asked her.

"He's not the only one." Felicity took her laptop, folding her arms over it and slipped away to go into the basement and try and get some work done.

Oliver might not be ready to come to terms with it, and this city might not be in agreement—but the fact was, he was a hero.

If nothing else, he was her hero.


	16. Morning After

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Morning After_

. . .

Summary: Tommy keeps Felicity company while she's waiting on Oliver.

Note: Um, so apparently I took a much longer hiatus post-vacation than I intended, but I'm back, and the story's back, along with a couple of the side stories that I was working on/promised to get posted. Thank you to everyone for sticking with this, and for all the love you were giving it while I wasn't updating. Also, this is stretching the knocking theme…but oh well.

. . .

She used to sleep.

As Felicity looked over at her screen and saw that it was 4:49 am, she wondered where her life had gone so amiss. It was almost five_ in the morning_ and she was waiting on Oliver Queen.

Okay, maybe in that context it didn't sound so bad but she was tired. She so so damn tired! Even the party people had long since departed, Verdant was empty and she was hanging out alone in a musty basement.

Yep, that was definitely the high flying kind of life that anyone would expect to hear about if she said she was hanging around with Oliver Queen.

"Ugh." Felicity let out a slightly hysteric moan before burying her head in her arms. "Where is that jerk?"

In all honesty, she was torn between anxiety and annoyance. He had better come back in one piece, just so she could tear him a new one.

"Well, women only make that sound when they're waiting on Oliver." Tommy chuckled. "Not such a good morning Felicity?"

She took a calming breath, because his sudden appearance had scared the hell out of her. Felicity hadn't even heard him on the stairs, she had to be more tired than she thought she was. What was Tommy even doing at the club at the crack of dawn?

Better question still: Where was Oliver? She had really been hoping it was him. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she _worried_ about him.

"Morning?" Felicity snapped, channeling all that anxiety into frustration. "It's hardly morning when you never got any sleep!"

"Join the club." Tommy said, nodding understandingly as he offered her a cup of coffee.

Felicity couldn't help herself, she needed a cup, and Tommy was…well, he was nice. At least, he never missed saying hello to her when she walked in, or asking her how she was doing, or offering to walk her back to her car.

"Thank you." She took a long inhale and sniffed. It was heavenly.

"I hate to see a pretty girl suffer." Tommy said, with a shake of his head.

"Well, you came to the aid of this fair maiden. My hero." Felicity teased, then retroactively worried that she had gone too far and it sounded like a come on.

Felicity sighed, and switched out of her work screens as inconspicuously as possible. Since Oliver wasn't following the rules, and staying in communication what good was her computer even doing? As much as she thought Tommy was a good guy, she still figured it was better she didn't run around sharing every project.

"It's just coffee." Tommy said easily, with a bright smile that belied the exhaustion he touted. "But at least it's hot."

Felicity found herself observing the little crinkle next to his blue eyes when he smiled, shaking away the thought of how cute he was. Like she needed a crush on another guy who was in love with Laurel Lance?

Really Felicity, like you don't have enough problems already? Nope, of course not. Just keep piling them on.

"I was just about to get breakfast though." Tommy said, drawing her attention back to him. "There's this really great Greek place we used to go to back in the day...and it looks like you've got some time free. On me."

As tempted as she was by the thought of some freshly made waffles with freshly sliced berries and sugar, never mind about a pot of steaming, hot coffee…Felicity knew she would have to turn him down.

It want like Oliver was forcing her to be here. As a matter of fact, she was sure he would admonish her for spending all night waiting on him-but she worried. _Particularly_, she thought with a flicker of annoyance, when he had turned off his comm system and left her sitting in the dark feeling about as useful as bimbo Barbie.

"Alethea makes an incredible omelet." Tommy said, making a little moan of pleasure that made her bite down on the smile that formed. "One bite and nothing you eat again will ever compare to it."

Tommy Merlyn was awfully charming, Felicity couldn't say that she was surprised that more than half of the Starling City's female population voted him most eligible bachelor. She told Oliver if he smiled sometimes that he'd win…

_Felicity really…_ The voice in her head rebuked her.

Like she could just go home and _sleep_ wondering if he was bleeding to death in some dark crack den alleyway, or captured by this other archer guy, or that he'dd been arrested, or fallen off of a building to a very ugly death that made her shiver...

Just thinking about all the infinite possibilities made her stomach churn.

'No' wasn't really her strong suit, and she was trying to decided now to decline the kind invitation when Oliver bounded down the stairs, whipping the hood off of his head and removing the sunglasses. A little sweaty and dirty but no worse for the wear, Felicity noted with a sense of relief.

That jerk! He's had her sitting here for hours, twisted up with worry and….nothing? Nothing!

Oliver looked like he was about to say something—finally— when Tommy turned his way.

"Hey," Tommy said. "Your timing hasn't changed, I was just persuading Felicity to get some breakfast—"

"At Alethea's? I don't think she'd be interested. She doesn't even eat eggs." Oliver said, shaking his head once and completing his friend's sentence, making her decision for her, which only served to spark the nerve and infuriate her further.

Oliver glanced her way, not seeming to realize that she was just emanating frustration, she was seething in short, dark little waves.

"Felicity, what are you still doing here? It's five in the morning." Oliver asked the question as casually as if she hadn't been cycling between annoyance and worry all night.

Wrong, wrong question! She felt a little..._utterly enraged_ with him.

I'd slap you, she thought, if I didn't think that it would result in you laughing at me and some sort of uncomfortable quaisi-sexual tension haunting us until next year.

"You turned off your comm system." Felicity said to him bitingly, arms folded over her chest and her mouth set in firm line as she swiveled around to watch his face as he apologized—profusely.

"Right, about that…I'm sorry." Oliver said, turning his back on her as he set his bow to the side. "I shouldn't have done that. You must be exhausted. I'll change and take you home—you shouldn't drive like this."

"Actually," Felicity said smoothly, hooping her voice wouldn't betray the frustration that was just boiling over as she grabbed her bag and jammed her tablet into it. "I'm hungry."

Felcity glanced Tommy's way, with a grateful smile on her face.

"Ravished actually, so thank you Tommy. It's so considerate if you. You don't mind driving me home at all, do you?"

"Not at all." Tommy said, with a slightly wise eyed look past her at Oliver. "I guess you're off the hook, buddy."

"What about your car?" Oliver said.

Crap. Felciity thought, she had been feeling especially smooth until that wrinkle.

"Don't worry about it." Tommy said, smoothly taking the bag with her laptop and tablet for her. "I'll have one of the guys return it for you."

"Crisis averted." Felicity said, feeling just a little bit guilty.

She deserved to live a little though, didn't she? Tommy was cute, and maybe he wasn't as hung up on Laurel as Oliver was. Even though she'd never thought of him that way, he was good company, and it would be nice to sit down with a guy…with anyone and not feel like she had to be worried about this huge secret hanging over them like an elephant in the room.

And just maybe, the little voice in her head said, you might feel all warm and bubbly inside if your not-date with Tommy makes Oliver jealous.

She glanced at Tommy, "Does this place have waffles? I love waffles."

"I think it could be arranged." Tommy said with a grin. "I do know the owner, you know."

"Great." Felicity beamed at him, and then glanced at Oliver. "I'm glad you're fine. Everything's in order, and…I'll see you tonight I guess."

She lifted her hand goodbye, catching a sort of stunned, kind of bewildered look marring his face.

Well, not exactly what she was going for. However, she would take what she could get.

She turned on her heel for the stairs, leaving Oliver dumbstruck and Tommy mouthing a 'wow'.

"I'll make sure she gets home safe." Tommy said before following her trail.

"Right…" Oliver sighed, dropping down in Felicity's seat. He wasn't entirely sure what just happened.

And you thought you were having a rough night before?

Oliver groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face.

Well, at least he was right about one thing tonight. Turning off the comm was a sure way of sending Felicity in a rage with him. He just didn't think that it would be the catalyst in sending her off on a date with Tommy—to his date place.

Not that he was making a thing out of it, but it was.


	17. Bedrooms

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Bedrooms _

_. . . _

Summary: Felicity needs a place to stay after her apartment is robbed. Oliver comes to her rescue.

Notes: You guys! Thanks for all the love on the last chapter, and all the way along as I've been writing this! All your favorites, and reviews, and alerts really mean so much to me! Also, a lot of people brought up Adelaide the dog, and I promised she'd be returning. Ta-da. Also, I've got a few other stories in the works that will be up soon, so if thats something that interests you, keep an eye out for that.

. . .

Felicity was trying to settle into the insanely furnished room that seemed more like a penthouse suite, but was distracted by the pictures—scratch that, art on the wall that was definitely not a Monet print. Diggle was right, she really did forget how incredibly rich the Queens were.

Or, she supposed that it was that she forgot that Oliver was that guy. Somehow she couldn't exactly make that connection between Oliver the billionaire heir to the Queen fortune, and Oliver, the guy who hung out in basements beating up dummies, taking out bad guys, and rescuing the girls.

Good thing for her that he was, too. As much as she hated to admit it, she'd been incredibly freaked out when she got home and found the lock to her apartment broken, and the room trashed—it looked like someone threw a rave in there. Not to mention threw her lamp through her television.

She sighed, dropping down on the bed and closing her eyes for a minute before Oliver could return. They might as well work. Before she went home, she'd been tracking Carmelo Garcia's every crooked move in the Starling City underbelly, and she was so close to zeroing in on his location.

Was it just her, or were the criminals getting dumber?

Felicity was musing on this very thought, meditating on the simplicity in the algorithm she had created to trace the sex trafficker, and hoping that it would take a few arrows on Oliver's part to reel in that pervert after what he'd done to a whole slew of teenage—

"Felicity."

"Jesus—Oliver!" Felicity jumped up, nearly falling off of the ridiculously springy bed.

She hadn't even heard—oh, don't be ridiculous Felicity, this is _Oliver_. Do you really think that he knocked?

"I didn't mean to startle you." A slight smile crossed his face. "You looked like you're settling in."

"I usually am until you barge in on me." Felicity told him, with a stern look and a warning finger. "You're lucky Addy is in the bathroom, or she would have given you away—no mean jokes, she's a very sensitive dog."

"She's a dog." Oliver said, stressing the word firmly, with a roll of his eyes. "I think she'll recover."

"Speaking of recoveries," Felicity said, throwing the door to the room open before someone could assume she was doing something super inappropriate with her boss. "Normally I would object to you barging in on me in the bedroom, but since it's yours house, do just come on in."

"Oh wait!" Felicity turned on her heel and glanced at him with a look of mock surprise. "You're already here!"

"Very funny." Oliver said, conceding her point with a nod of his head. "Since you're up, there's something I want you to do with me."

Don't even go there. She admonished her brain.

Oliver grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the room. They'd barely cleared the bedroom, when Felicity felt a spark of anxiety as she saw Thea and Moira Queen walking down the hall.

"No time like the present," Oliver said, edging his way towards the door before Felicity could try and escape. "I've been meaning to introduce you and my mother to one another."

"Oliver!" Felicity hissed, seized with panic.

He smiled, "Don't worry, she loves intelligent woman. I'm sure the two of you can dress me down more effectively as a pair, and with big words too."

Felicity was about to open her mouth and give him a taste of it right now when she was interrupted by Thea. Actually, she was sure that the entire Queen Manor was being interrupted by Thea in this moment.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Thea practically splintered with anger as Felicity and Oliver walked out of the bedroom and right into her and Moira's path. "Oliver! _Mom_!"

Thea turned around furiously to get some support from her mother, who seemed to be lingering down the hallway still. Felicity really didn't blame her. Had she had any other option, she too would have ducked and took cover while the Queen siblings duked it out.

Resignedly, as Thea yelled for her mother again, Moira came their way, and Felicity wondered if it was literally possible to die of embarrassment. Not only was she in what would look like a very inappropriate situation with her boss—bosses?—but it looked like it was happening in his mother's house?

These things are not supposed to happen to good people. Felicity gave a glance upwards, I've been a nice Jewish girl, is this really what I get in return?

"So how come Oliver can have his girlfriend spend the night, but Roy gets the shaft?" Thea asked, with a disgruntled demand in her tone. "This isn't fair."

"Oh no, no..." Felicity shook her head in abject humiliation at being mistaken like this, _this couldn't possibly be happening to her. Hadn't the day gone badly enough already?_ "I'm not, I mean...I'm just…"

A complete and utter idiot. Felicity internalized a groan. Just once she wished she could open up her mouth and not make a fool out of herself. It was no wonder that Oliver wasn't attracted to her.

_You think Laurel Lance babbles? I think not._

"Stop acting so dramatic, Thea," Oliver said, with a slight roll of the eyes, not seeming at all concerned under her onslaught. "This isn't all about you, my friend is staying with us for a while, and you're being incredibly rude."

"Oliver is right." Moira said, nodding her head in agreement, "You're acting very immature Thea."

"I—What?" Thea exploded, "_I'm_ immature? He's a total hypocrite, mom!"

Thea gesticulated angrily in her brother's direction, steaming with frustration.

"You know what," Felicity turned and glanced up at Oliver. "Really, I was just going to stay at the—"

"You're not going anywhere. Just relax Felicity." Oliver rested his hand on the small of her back and she felt that ridiculous little tingle that started in her stomach and lit through her body in a slow burn. "Thea is using you as a bargaining chip."

Oh god, you knew this was a bad idea. Felicity thought. In what world did you ever fathom that moving in with your boss would remotely be a good idea. Oh god...his hand is still there. His hands are big, like really-_Stop, just stop right there_. You have more than enough problems as is.

When Felicity rejoined the conversation with the part of her brain (which may have been all of it) that deigned to turn her into a neurotic mess, particularly where Oliver seemed to be involved she realized that Moira, yes, THE Moira Queen was standing in front of her, between her children as they argued.

"Oliver is a grown man, Thea, and can have any guest he chooses to have—"

Oh God, Felicity thought, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

"That's not fair!" Thea objected loudly, "He threw Roy out of my bedroom. Mom, it was mortifying. I deserve a little respect, _boundaries_! I'm not a little girl anymore!"

"Like the boundaries that you violated when you snuck a guy into your bedroom in the middle of the night?" Oliver said pointedly, "He's lucky I'm the one who caught him and not security."

"Or not." Felicity mumbled under her breath, not realizing she'd said it out loud until Oliver glanced down at her with a little bit of a wrinkle in his eyebrows.

What, like she was wrong? She was just relieved he'd shown enough restraint to not put a few arrows in him just for sport.

"Oliver's right." Moira said, "What if, God forbid, security had mistaken him for an intruder and hurt him? Did you consider that?"

"Oh, that's really rich mom." Thea retorted, with a sarcastic nod of her head, "Because he's from the glades, _right_? Of course he's a criminal."

When Oliver looked like he was about to say something, Felicity elbowed him hard. Now did not seem like the prime time to debate Roy's police record. Like Oliver's record was so squeaky clean?

Oliver gave her a rebuking look, and she refused to give into it. This was definitely a case of her being right, and him being wrong.

"Don't even bother pulling that card, Thea. It has nothing to do with where he's from. The point is that you shouldn't be sneaking boys into your room."

"I think that the point is that there is a double standard." Thea said, "Because—"

"That's enough!" Moira exclaimed loudly, causing Felicity to jump a little in surprise. "Thea, you have school in the morning, leave Oliver and his guest be."

Moira sighed deeply as Thea stalked off, and turned to look at Felicity.

"Felicity, you're a welcome guest in our home, stay as long as you'd like. That is...if my children haven't yet scared you away yet. I wish I could tell you that normally they are better behaved, but that would be a terrible lie...please, make yourself comfortable. If you need anything-Oliver, show her the bell, I'll notify Hilda that we have a guest, she'll take care of anything you need."

"Thank you," Felicity said as Moira started to walk away, and then glanced at Oliver, "They said I can return to my apartment tomorrow."

Oliver seemed to ignore the statement, nudging her into her bedroom with his hand. He pushed the door shut, and turned to look at her, crossing his arms.

"You're not going back to your apartment until I catch who broke in." Oliver said.

"The police said that it was safe." Felicity reminded him, pulling her tablet free from her bag and sitting at the desk near Oliver.

"And I'm saying that it's not." Oliver said, pressing his hands against the back of the chair with frustration.

"It's not that out of the ordinary," Felicity said, "My apartment complex has a history of robberies. It's not that big of a deal, I just need a new TV before The Big Bang Theory comes back on."

"You're not making me feel any better about this situation." Oliver said, "You might have to move in permanently."

Felicity laughed, looking up at him and stopping as the look on his face seemed as serious as before.

"Why do I get the feeling you're not joking?"

As if to agree with Felicity, Adelaide ran into the room and yapped twice, before sniffing Oliver and deciding that he was acceptable. She trotted over to sit down next to Felicity and look him over questionably.

"Like she doesn't know me by now?" Oliver said, turning from Felicity to the dog. "You better behave, judgey. There's cats around here, and they're a volatile bunch. Hey don't really care for outsiders."

"You have a petty side, you are aware of that, right?" Felicity said as she flipped through some files on her tablet. "I've got to take her for a walk before she mars your carpets."

"There are people for that. You should stay indoors." Oliver told her. "I'll call someone."

"No." Felicity shook her head, "I'll walk my own dog, thank you. Besides, she's very selective in who she chooses for company."

"I noticed." Oliver said dryly, and then sighed, "Just stick to the grounds then, please. Just until this is resolved."

"I don't know how impressive you're going to find your IT girl who could without her database and Verdant workup." Felicity said, frowning as she was denied entry into the FBI databases. "And don't you think you might be just a smidge overprotective? Someone robbed my apartment, it's not like there is a price on my head."

"I don't count anything out." Oliver said, "What do the police have?"

"They have the intel on the robbery, and a slew of people to deal with it." Felicity turned in her chair to face him, and handed him her tablet. "You've got bigger problems."

"I can prioritize, and right now your safety is at the top of the list." He handed it back to her, "I need the police report, and then get some sleep."

Felicity sighed, trying to hide the little tickle that lingered through her body as Oliver's words brushed over her. God, she liked him more than she should.

"Well, when you find this guy, I'd really like my camera and jewelry back." Felicity remarked, "There's a pair of ear rings in there that were my grandmother's."

"I'll find them." Oliver said.

"Well, you're more confident than the police were." Felicity said.

"I have a higher motivation." Oliver replied as he took the tablet from her.

"Speaking of motivation," Felicity tried to hide a smile, "Tell me, how you don't at all feel like a hypocrite for throwing a boy out of your sister's room. I heard that you once um…hid a girl in your sister's bathtub."

"Really, do I have to get it from you too?" Oliver asked, "And Thea promised she'd never tell."

"You took her boyfriend and shoved him out of the house. I'm just saying, I see why she's upset. You're a little territorial."

Oliver narrowed his eyes at her defensively.

"Are you trying to say something, Felicity?"

She considered reminding him of the twitchy thing he did when Roy kissed Thea, or his decidedly weird reaction to her not-date with Tommy, but decided better of it.

"You threw your sister's boyfriend out of her room. It could have been handled with more finesse." Felicity stopped working and looked up at him, "I'm sure that was very embarrassing for her. Could of used some of that restraint you're always insisting that you come by in droves."

"Make it go faster." Oliver said stiffly, "I'm getting a very strong urge to put an arrow in someone."

Hmm, Felicity thought, now who was being immature? He just couldn't handle hearing he was wrong. Really, he'd all but made a religion out of it.

"I'm getting a strong urge to tell you to sit down and stop hovering while I work, but I don't, do I?" Felicity raised an eyebrow at him, hoping he'd get the point. "Relax and try not to think about killing someone for five minutes."

"That might be a challenge." Oliver replied.

"And this is a cake walk?" Felicity shot back, "Let me do my thing, and you can…I don't know, do some sit ups or something."

Oliver lips twitched upwards into a smile,

"And you call me the petty one."


	18. Worth It

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Worth It_

. . .

Summary: She's not really a club girl, but this isn't really a regular kind of night.

Note: This (unusually long) chapter arose from a request from _quisinart4_ to see Felicity on a date + jealous Oliver. After spending a day and a half trying to edit this down, and considering splitting it into two separate chapters I decided to hell with it, and kept it as is. Considering how many people have been requesting other characters, I'd like to get an idea of who else you'd all like to see.

And maybe a warning for excessive drinking? In case I didn't get around to thanking everyone for all the love on the previous chapter—thanks so much! I'm glad that after all these chapters, people are still enjoying the story out there!

As a side note: I'm in the process of editing Chapter 2 off my story Far From Paradise, and so the next chapter might be slightly delayed, say…an extra day or two?

. . .

"Congratulations," Oliver said coolly, looking over Roy Harper with an unyielding gaze as he watched Felicity at the bar with a man he didn't recognize.

Designer suit, expensive overly gelled haircut; and plying her with drinks—he knew the type. However, he also knew that there were a few of Jorge Diaz's thugs dealing behind his club, and he needed to take care of that immediately. It had been in his plan to collar them and get a lead back to Jorge.

Felicity's date, however, had not been in the plan when he told her to take the night off. Not like it was a jealousy thing, he just didn't want to see someone take advantage of her any more than he would have someone take advantage of his sister.

Speaking of that, Oliver glanced down at Roy. He hoped the kid got that this was a one chance thing, if he screwed this up, Roy would get to meet the hood a lot easier than he thought he would.

He was just looking after her. There was nothing weird about it.

"What, you decided to stop yanking me around?" Roy asked, "You're not going to scare me away, man. Not from Thea. I'm not going anywhere."

"We'll see." A slight smile crossed Oliver's face. "I'm giving you an opportunity to prove that you are a good guy that I can trust my sister with."

"Wasn't that the point of this job?" Roy fumbled with his tie, clearly uncomfortable in the starched suit.

"I care about my sister a lot more than I care about this club, or the convertibles you're parking." Oliver said, "Now, look at the bar. You have a new job. This is your _only_ job."

"To serve liquor?" Roy raised an eyebrow at him.

"No." Oliver said, with a shake of his head. "Do you see the blonde, she's wearing a sleeveless gold dress, blonde hair…she's with—"

"Yeah, yeah," Roy said, "Cute blonde girl with the guy trying really hard to get her drunk enough to go home with him. He was driving a Maserati. I think that he's the mayor's son."

"Do not take your eyes off of her." Oliver told him, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He's heard of Jake Greenberg before, and he didn't trust him with Felicity. She was too innocent. "Just _watch_ them. If he tries to take her home, or causes any trouble intervene. Other than that, just watch until I get back."

"Huh." Roy raised an eyebrow. "Thea said you didn't have a girlfriend."

"She's just a friend." Oliver said, stressing the word. "Take good care of her."

"Friend?" Roy chuckled to himself as Oliver left, watching the pair as he was assigned to. "Could have fooled me. If I had a friend like that, I wouldn't have a girlfriend anymore."

. . .

Felicity giggled as the tall, blonde bartender handed her another one of the delicious bright green drinks in the tall slim glasses that she'd been drinking all night.

"These are literally, the greatest things I've ever tasted in my life!"

A small part of her was aware that she should have been bowing out early, and take a cab back to her apartment to sleep off all of this rum and vodka that currently drenched her bloodstream. However, a much more dominant part told her that the night was far from over.

She turned to Jake, "You were right. I haven't lived. This is amazing…"

Felicity took a sip, and Jake took the opportunity to slip his arm around her waist and lead her down to a more secluded part of the bar.

"What _are_ they?"

She really hadn't been living, even as inebriated as she was, she realized that she was wasting her life away. It was one thing to be Oliver's computer girl, but she couldn't sit on the sidelines forever and hope that he'd be interested in her the way she was in him.

Life was short, and it was time that she started living it some.

"It's called green arrow because it pierces," Jake smiled as his hand slid around her neck and pulled him close to her, before pressing his lips to hers.

"It pierces right through you." He finished quietly, relieving her of the drink.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of." Felicity giggled, and stumbled slightly as he spun her onto the dance floor. "Who comes up with a name like that?"

_Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black? Your own boss is 'the hood'._

"Who cares?" Jake said, pulling her up closely and grinding with her, to the thick dance beats that were permeating the crowded club.

Go with it. _Also, that…totally not your fault. You would have gone with something that rolled off the tongue a little better, and didn't sound so criminal. Sagittarius, maybe?_

_Maybe not._

The old Felicity, the _sober_ Felicity might have extricated herself from this situation, but here she was…being desired by one of the richest, sexiest men in Starling City, and she decided it was time to start being the 'It Girl' instead of the 'IT Girl'.

She dove into the music. Dancing into the thumbing bass beat that permeated the crowded club, grinding her hips in the smooth circular movements against the tempo that Jake's hands moved in.

It was to her surprise, when Jake tilted her head to the side, and captured her mouth with his lips. His mouth devoured hers, and as she pressed back into the kiss she realized he was leading her off of the dance floor hungrily, and didn't care.

"I don't live far from here." Jake said as they came up for air.

Felicity swallowed, unsure if she was quite ready to move that fast. She took longer committing to a flavor of frozen yogurt.

Breathlessly, and trying to buy time, she pulled him back down to her mouth and kissed him; biting down on his lip. She found her back pressed up against a wall, his mouth beginning an onslaught against her lips, his hands holding her body flush to his.

_God, this was a good night. She owed this all to Oliver. Ew, no. Stop it. You can't think of Oliver when you're…oh god…_

Felicity tried to quiet a moan when he started to suckle the sensitive muscle in her neck, lips trailing over the delicate, tender flesh.

No one could accuse her of not being able to have a good time. She was _the_ good time girl, if this night was going to be any kind of indication.

. . .

"Oh shit…" Roy groaned under his breath as Oliver's not-girlfriend and the mayor's son started to paw at each other in the far corner near the bar.

Oliver was not going to like this. Somehow, he didn't think that sex in the middle of the club was any more acceptable than in the back of his Maserati…and frankly, he was sorta getting the impression that the guy was a little bit of a douche as well.

"Well, you should have just told me that voyeurism was the kind of kink you get off on, Harper."

When he heard the sultry whisper in his ear, he jumped; then took a steadying breath when he realized it was Thea, who grinned as she elbowed him in the side.

"You scared the hell out of me." Roy told her, "I thought you were going to be home all night."

"I was." Thea shrugged, biting down on the playful smile that crossed her face.

She grabbed Roy by his tie and pulled him in for a kiss.

"But I missed my boyfriend."

"Thanks…" Roy said, glancing away and back to the couple, "But…"

"Oh, no, no…" Thea shook her head and stood in front of him. "I don't give you a mind blowing kiss and expect a thank you. What's going on with you?"

"I'm _working_." Roy said with a sigh, glancing away from Felicity and Mayor Greenberg's son.

"Well, I'd hate to think what that makes you." Thea retorted.

"Remember, the job that you got for me so that I'm not just a societal deviant that your brother's sole purpose in life is not to try and chase out of your life?" Roy told her, not bothering to tell her he didn't think it was working out so well. "It should ring a bell, they were all your words."

"Wow." Thea crossed her arms over her chest, "You're in a great mood. What's got you in a huff?"

Roy groaned, and scrubbed his hands over his face.

"You're impossible sometimes, you really are. I mean—you can be such an incredible…"

"That last word had better be girlfriend." Thea warned him.

"Oh no." Roy felt his stomach drop, as his head shot up, remembering the blonde. "Oh shit, where did she go?"

Roy turned around, trying to search the club, and couldn't spot her.

"Thea, did you see her?"

"Who?" She asked, "You know, I'm trying really hard not to be offended—"

"Thea, your brother asked me to keep an eye on his blonde…whatever she is—_Felicity_. She's with the mayor's son…."

"Oh…" Thea smiled slowly, her eyebrow's raising in approval. "I've seen him in the paper. He's very photogenic. Great hair."

"Not helping." Roy said, trying to scan the club for them. "Your brother is going to kill me."

Thea nodded her head, "Probably. He's like…really sensitive about Felicity. Definitely some sort of closeted loving going on there. And chemistry like…woah."

"I'm screwed." Roy groaned.

"Don't be so dramatic." Thea grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the bar, pushing through the throngs of people who crowded around.

"Tommy!" she yelled, "Hey, Tommy!"

Behind the bar, he seemed to be deep in conversation with someone, and Thea groaned.

"I'm not wearing the right shoes for this."

"What in the hell are you doing?" Roy asked her.

"Helping you."

Carefully, she got up on the stool, and climbed over the bar, ignoring the protesting bartender.

"I'll be-be right out of your way." Thea said, using his shoulder as a hand hold to jump down. "Tommy!"

She waved, finally catching his attention.

"Tommy, thank god…I need you."

"Well, it's not every day…" Tommy started to laugh but stopped at the serious look on her face. "Everything okay?"

"Yes…uh no. I don't really know." Thea grabbed his arm and pulled him over to where Roy was waiting, and looking around the club with the desperate hope of finding Felicity.

"Oh god, please tell me it's not the Ferrari." Tommy cringed, the thought of being responsible for a half a million dollar car.

"Yeah, no." Roy said with a shake of his head.

"Oliver sent him on this mission to keep an eye on his blonde friend, you know, Felicity?" Thea said to him.

"Yeah, I know Felicity." Tommy smiled. "She's here? She doesn't do the club scene."

_God, really?_ Thea thought, _Were Tommy and her brother actually capable of liking different girls?_

"Um, no…actually she's doing it really effectively." Thea told him, "Anyways, Ollie was doing his weird possessive thing and told Roy to keep an eye on her, because she's with Jake Greenberg…and he lost her."

"I didn't lose her." Roy exclaimed, "Thea was distracting me!"

"You might want to save that excuse for…actually, just put it away. Oliver doesn't really do excuses." Tommy said, eyebrows furrowed together in concern.

He turned to Caroline, a tall leggy bartender with cropped blonde hair and brown eyes that twinkled up at him as his hand brushed her shoulder.

"Hey Tommy."

"I know you're busy," he said, "But did you see a girl, about five-five, curly blonde hair to about here…"

"Sorry Tommy, but you're describing about a third of the co-eds in here." Caroline said apologetically.

"She's with Jake Greenberg." Thea said, leaning into the conversation. "You probably remember him."

"Oh absolutely," Caroline chirped, "There's a blonde girl with him too, she fits the bill, she's…"

Caroline bit down on her lip as she looked across the club.

"We looked everywhere." Roy groaned, and he thought he'd had trust issues with Thea's brother before.

"There she is." Caroline said, pointing to the stage.

She laughed, "I think she had one arrow too many."

On the stage, she was dancing up against Jeremy Underground Paris, raising a shot in celebration to the crowd on the dance floor before downing it with a holler of celebration.

"Whoa," Thea stifled a laugh. "Go Felicity. They're right, it always is the quiet ones."

"I don't know how funny it is," Tommy said with a frown. "Where did she get a whole bottle from?"

He gestured to the stage, where she was dancing with a bottle of Absolut in her hand, which she passed off to the hall brunette dancing next to her. Tommy jumped over the bar, in a rush to put a stop to the crazy on stage—including the other two girls that were up there swaying with her.

Roy hurried behind him, just hoping that they could put a stop to the entire mess before Oliver got back and completely tore him a new one.

"Don't wait for me! I'm only wearing four inch Manolo Blahniks! " Thea hollered after them, sighing and turning to Caroline. "I'll take a martini, neat."

Caroline laughed, "Nice try."

Thea groaned, leaning against the bar.

So, this night was sort of a bust.

. . .

Aside from having to stomach the idea that his friend was choosing to spend her night with their corrupt mayor's jerk of a son, Oliver felt like the night had been a success. Now that he'd take care of Jorge's thugs, and sent one of them back with one of the incredible useful tracking devices; he felt like the night was looking up.

Certainly, he could slip his way between Felicity and Greenberg. Besides, she was obviously drunk, it was the mature thing to do, making sure that his friend made it home safely.

_Or not…_ Oliver thought, as he weaved his way through the crowd, only to look up in something bordering between surprise and confusion to see Felicity turning around on the stage next to Jeremy Underground Paris, and looking like she had celebrated enough for everyone.

He looked again, just to convince himself that it was in fact Felicity, that was dancing on the stage with a couple models; one of which looked suspiciously similar to Adriana Lima.

"Felicity, Felicity!" Tommy cupped his hands around his mouth, "What are you doing? Get down from the stage, I'll take you home."

"Home?" Felicity laughed loudly, raising the bottle over her head in celebration. "But the night's just got started!"

She twirled around the stage, feeling like a star under the bright lights, and the attention the cute British DJ was giving her when he handed off the bottle of vodka.

Oliver was relieved as he hurried toward the stage that Tommy seemed to be trying to get the situation under control. For Felicity to be acting this wild, he wondered how much she'd had to drink. At least Greenberg was gone.

"This is the most incredible night ever!" she yelled, throwing her arms out wide. "Tommy, don't be so serious—it's going to leave wrinkles on that handsome face!"

He saw it coming a moment too late, not close enough to stop it, but far enough to see it unfold.

Felicity turned on her heel, reaching down to grab Tommy's hand and pull him up on stage for the good time they were both looking for. Jake had left, and as much as she realized that it should totally bother her—upset her even—she just didn't care. Even that wasn't ruining the vodka infused night.

And Tommy was here! This night was still coming up all her.

Felicity stumbled in the heels, as she twirled and let out a cry as she tumbled off of the stage; dropping the bottle of vodka to the floor. For a moment, she felt painfully sober as she fell until she landed in a pair of strong arms.

_Oliver_?

Oliver was relieved as Tommy grabbed her, nudging Roy out of the way with a shake of his head.

"Great job," he said acerbically.

"Tommy…" Felicity chuckled, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

Oliver's relief quickly turned to confusion, and a familiar spark of envy before they separated.

"I guess you're my hero." Felicity told him, moving her hand from around his neck to touch his nose, and poking him in the cheek.

And there it was again.

Cautiously, Roy tried to extricate himself from the equation. He felt that between losing Felicity, and the kiss, and the weird twitchy thing that the muscle in Oliver's neck was doing…didn't feel like a prime time to execute an apology or explanation. Luckily, Oliver was so involved in watching Tommy and Felicity, he didn't even notice that Roy had slipped away.

He was _not_ jealous. Oliver shook his head once, and then reminded himself again. Not jealous.

"I saw what happened." He looked to Tommy, "Is she okay?"

"I uh…" Tommy tilted his head slightly, not exactly sure if there was a double meaning behind Oliver's words. "Uh…"

"I've been having this drink," Felicity said, her sentence losing its place for a moment when Tommy set her on her feet. "You'd love it, Oliver. It's a green arrow—its…"

She laughed, "Of all the stupid names."

Felicity turned to walk past them, when Oliver grabbed her around the waist.

"I don't think so. How much have you had to drink Felicity?"

She shrugged, holding her arms out, palms up. "He just kept bringing me drinks. I think I like the green arrow. No, I love—_love_ the green arrow."

"What is she talking about?" Oliver asked Tommy over her head, keeping an arm around her waist before she could escape and do any further damage to herself.

"It's a drink." Tommy said, "Uh…Caroline made up these city cocktails, it's her vigilante themed one. Its vodka, and rum…"

"It tastes like summer. It all mellon-y, and its bright green." Felicity giggled.

"Its not the only thing." Oliver said, taking a good look at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Spinny." She giggled, "Dizzny…"

Felicity shook her head, and swallowed as she felt the churning in her stomach.

"I feel awesome."

"I'll take you home." Oliver said with a nod of his head. "Although, you might need more than a night to sleep this one off."

"Going home with Oliver Queen!" Felicity laughed as she yelled it out to the crowd of people, the greater majority of whom didn't seem to be paying any attention. "Just saying!"

"She's not going to be celebrating it in the morning." Tommy cringed, then glanced down at her. "Lots of fluids, okay Felicity. Call me if you need anything."

"Don't worry about her." Oliver assured Tommy, his arm around her waist possessively. "I'll take care of her."

"I can hear you, you know." Felicity said, feeling like her words were coming out all bloated. "No need to mark your territory…"

"Okay drunkie…" Oliver tried to hide a smile as he swept her up into his arms.

"The lights are spinning." Felicity moaned, leaning her head against his chest.

"That's what happens when you drink the bar." Oliver informed her.

Felicity mimicked his words, parroting them back to him.

"You're no fun at all."

Oliver chuckled as he led her out the back of the club, "I can't wait to talk about this with you when you're sober.

"Sober…" Felicity laughed, stumbling a little before Oliver grabbed her. "That's ridiculous. I need fun. You need to have some fun, you're all…grr…and cranky, and you really need to let loose and—_Oliver_."

Felicity stopped in the hall, vaguely realizing between all the fuzziness in her brain that she—that this was one of those moments.

"You know, living for the city….it's not really living." Felicity told him, looking up at him, and trying to sort out the words as they floated around.

She'd spent ages trying to sort out this, to get it out and she chose the night that she was more alcohol than water? Chalk this up to alcohol poisoning if it went horribly.

"Just…don't so that to yourself, Oliver. You've got to live your life. You don't owe it all to the city." Felicity swallowed, looking down in away. "You never failed it, you don't owe it your life."

For a moment, Oliver was too stunned to say anything. He'd heard the lecture from Diggle, he'd been berated by his sister for not having any fun anymore, but this was the first time that he'd heard anything say it….

_Defensively_. He'd spent so long defending himself, and then coming back to protect others that he'd sort of forgotten what it felt like to have someone fighting for him. It was fighting for this, for people like her, and for the people he loved that made every night worth it.

"Let's say we get you home while you can still walk." Oliver wrapped his arm around her waist, and kissed the top of her head with a light chuckle. "You're one in a million, Felicity Smoak."


	19. Good Night, Bad Morning

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Good Night, Bad Morning_

. . .

Summary: A good night makes for a terrible morning.

Note: Well, it's been a crazy couple of days…geesh. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, and following along with the story for as long as you have—you've been amazing! Also, if you want to play a fun game, play which scene came from real life (JK…or maybe I'm not ;D). For those of you who have been following my other Arrow story, Far From Paradise, I'm a little later with the update than I said I would—but it _will_ be up tomorrow.

There were a few people who mentioned that they felt that _Olicity_ was lacking some in the previous chapter, so I hope I made up for it with this one! This is the first time that I sort of took the same story into two chapters…so with chapter 20 the story will be moving on in the usual way—and please, still feel free to throw me any requests and suggestions for what you'd like to see.

Another anon reviewer asked if these stories are all meant to be standalone, or if they have a sort of progressive line—well, I was hoping it was coming through in the story, but though the majority are separate stories, yes they are going to carry on sequentially.

_**Edited since posting for typos, thanks to quisinart4 for pointing them out!_

. . .

"Would you like the bucket now or later?"

When Oliver saw her start to stir on the bed, he placed the tall glass of pedialyte on the table next to her.

"Felicity?" he cajoled.

Felicity groaned miserably, burying her head under the pillow.

"I don't want to go...the other girls are so mean."

Oliver struggled to cover up a chuckle that was just begging to burst forth. He bit down on the inside of his mouth hard. She would never get over it if he burst into laughter.

The way he heard it though, she was singing a different tune with her sisters of soul onstage last night.

Literally.

"Felicity," Oliver sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning over her and tugging the pillow away—or trying to at first, a little surprised as she didn't let it go so easily.

He always knew she had some fight in her.

"C'mon, drink this and you'll feel better." He swept her hair out of her face.

She rolled over and looked at him accusingly, blinking a couple times, and looking incredibly confused.

"Oh god…I think I'm going to be sick." Felicity mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut as she slowly sat up.

_Been there, done that_. Oliver thought, glancing past her at his bathroom. _All night long_.

Don't even think it. Oliver rebuked himself as his mind considered the double entrendre left hanging in the air. She is like your _sister_. Focus on that for god's sake.

Nope, not without getting a little sick himself.

"Here." Oliver handed her the glass, and gave her an apologetic look. "You'll feel better. And I'll feel better that you can prove you're alive. Proven hang over cure, by the way. I'm an expert, you know."

"I can believe it." Felicity muttered under her breath as she took a slow sip of the bright orange liquid. "Eck….its sweet."

Oliver decided that it probably clicked in her head when a wrinkle formed in her forehead.

"What are you doing?" Felicity asked after a couple more sips of the orange liquid, apparently regaining a sense of consciousness of her surroundings.

"I didn't...why are you in my bed? Oh god, we didn't..." It turned into full blown panic as quickly as his Mercedes went from zero to sixty.

"What? No." Oliver shook his head, "No."

He wondered for a moment if she thought he was the kind of a guy who would take advantage of her like that. Did Felicity really think he was that guy?

"_Why_ are you in my bed?" Felicity asked, her head clearly still a bit musty. "How did I get in bed? What happened? It feels like there is a steel drum banging in my head."

"Well, you've got that in reverse." Oliver chuckled, finding this just slightly more amusing than he probably should. "that's my bed."

He patted it as if to demonstrate. Felicity looked down at the rumpled silk sheets, and burgundy duvet, then around at the high ceilings and huge windows and realized…

_Oh god, no. What have you done? _

"You pretty much took up the whole thing too." Oliver said.

"Roman Holiday." Felicity said suddenly, eyes widening, with her voice akin to a whisper as she looked furtive over the glass at him.

She'd always had Audrey Hepburn fantasies in life, but this wasn't exactly a scene she'd been eager to have play out. Really, she was preferential to _Breakfast at Tiffany's_.

All that was missing was the settee. That movie did not end well for Audrey.

"What?" Oliver asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He checked her forehead to make sure she didn't have a fever, as he'd done periodically all night, between the vomiting trips she took in his bathroom.

"Nothing. Nothing." Felicity shook her head, flushed with embarrassment, and then looked a bit sick as she looked down at the Princeton t-shirt she was wearing.

"I'm in...when...when did I change?" Felicity said, adding on a moment later, "You went to Princeton?"

She laughed, pointing at him and then the logo on the shirt.

"Of course you did."

Oliver looked her over, "And that's funny to you? Where did you go?"

"MIT." Felicity said through a little bit of a laugh still. "You know…Princeton."

She stressed the word, and then gestured to him.

"Princeton, Queen...'prince'…" Felicity's voice trailed off as she felt a wave of nausea and covered her mouth with her hand. "Talk about a good fit."

"Well, I'm sure they were amused by that very coincidence as they expelled me." Oliver informed her.

When it passed, she looked down at the blankets she had tossed off and saw that she was naked aside from the t-shirt and tugged the dark burgundy sheet up, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. It was not even remotely in her plan to be half-naked in front of Oliver.

Certainly not in this context.

"Don't worry. I didn't see anything." Oliver assured her, with a grin, "You were in the bathroom for nearly an hour getting dressed and serenading my sink. You're really, quite the delightful drunk, Felicity. Very esoteric—you spent two hours explaining some guy named Fermat. And you really, really like Madonna, don't you? You know…the whole catalog."

Her face burned with embarrassment, as Oliver gestured broadly with his hands. She didn't remember it, but it didn't take a lot to imagine—Madonna was her go to drunk music. Nothing fulfilled a liquor fueled night like a round of _Express Yourself_ if she was feeling amazing, maybe a little_ Into the Groove_ if she wanted her Spice Girls dance moves to make a comeback, but dear god, not…not _True Blue_. No, even her drunk self could not deign to do that to her.

Felicity considered asking him, she considered all the impending mortification that could arise from the answer as well. Could she really have exceeded the embarrassment that came from serenading her boyfriend with_ Like a Virgin_ on his birthday…to have him follow it up with, _'I don't think we should see each other anymore.'_

"You never told me you dance." Oliver said, with a twinkle in his smile that reached his eyes. "Aren't you quite the triple threat?"

"Please tell me I didn't dance around your room re-enacting_ Into the Groove_." Felicity told him, "I'm pretty sure I'm dying, and I'd like to do so with a little dignity."

"You didn't." Oliver said, "Actually, I think that your rendition of _Hung Up_ was fantastic. You're extraordinary."

It could be worse, she reminded herself. It could have been so much worse.

"I don't feel it." She groaned, "I am so not the good times drunk girl. Never again."

Oliver decided that now wasn't the time to tell her that not only did she burst into a round of '_Cherish_', but also got him to dance with her as well. She might not ever forgive him for letting it happen.

"Okay..." Oliver handed her the wastebasket and pulled her hair back off of her shoulder for her. "I tried to stop you, back at the club. You were fairly determined, however."

"It's a dominant aspect of my personality." Felicity said, then moaned, "Oh my god…how can a person do this to themselves?"

Oliver still didn't have the answer for that, so he made up for it by holding her hair back as she threw up. Smoothly, he relieved her of the basket and handed her some tissues. After she seemed to recover, he returned the conversation to the previous night.

"Tommy called to see how you were doing." Oliver said cautiously, testing the waters to see her reaction.

Not like he was jealous, just relaying a friendly message…from a mutual friend. Because, that was what friends did from friends.

It seemed like most of last night was a blur, Oliver decided as her face scrunched up in that cute little way she had, like she was working on a particularly confusing problem.

"Because he would...oh god." Felicity looked a little green. "Verdant, of course. I couldn't have picked anywhere else for…"

What is wrong with you? She asked herself, you couldn't have gotten completely trashed at one of the other dozens and dozens of clubs in Starling City that wasn't owned by your boss?

"Well, it is the hottest club in town." Oliver told her with a grin.

"Shut up." Felicity moaned, laying back on the pillow.

She chanced a look and a glance in Oliver's direction, she had to—she couldn't look anyone in the face and wonder what sort of awful thing she did.

"Did I do anything embarrassing?"

Oliver opened his mouth, and then closed it again; struggling to keep from smiling.

"Define embarrassing."

Felicity's stomach dropped as she flashed back to that awful party in college. Thank god she didn't end up as one more internet cautionary tale.

"Supposing…." Felicity said slowly, "A girl got up on a bar and belted out a Britney Spears after downing two shots of tequila and dancing…around a pole?"

_Please god, no._

"Well..." Oliver smiled, "There was no Madonna—as far as I know—and you weren't on top of the bar."

"Oh thank god." A small amount of churning in her stomach seemed to cease.

She laid back against the pillows, with an overarching sense of relief.

"However, there was a stage involved, and you danced your heart out with Adriana Lima and Miranda Kerr. By the way, Adriana called twice looking for you. I think you're BFF's."

Oliver nudged her playfully and laughed, "Our own Felicity, hanging out with supermodels and teaching Starling City what a real diva is."

"Well that's a lie." Felicity said, begging and praying it was. "I think I'd remember supermodels."

Oliver shrugged, "Just ask Tommy. He's the one who caught you when you tumbled off the stage..."

"I didn't…" Felicity couldn't help the little gasp of horror that escaped. "No."

"That thank you was better than I'd ever gotten." Oliver noted, gesturing to her, and shaking his head once. "I mean..."

He chuckled, "That was a kiss."

"No." Felicity shook her head, trying to ignore the nausea that turned her stomach.

It really was, Oliver thought. Hardly able to believe it even now, the way that she took charge, grabbing Tommy and taking the kiss without any reserves. That sort of surety had been what he only hoped was liquor confidence.

Not like you have feelings for her, his conscience taunted him. She works with you, for god's sake. Felicity's your girl.

"No." Felicity was slightly horrified by the squeak that escaped, "No, because I wouldn't...kiss Tommy. I mean not because...I just..."

_Take it back_, she begged silently.

"You did." Oliver said, "Which struck me as particularly interesting since when I left you were with Jake Greenberg. Not that there's anything wrong with playing the field."

You did not really just say that, Oliver asked himself, to _Felicity_?

"Everything in my life is wrong." Felicity said in a mildly hysterical whisper. "I didn't."

"Oh, you did." Oliver nodded his head, a small smile on the corner of his lips.

Oliver grabbed the tablet from the bedside table and handed it to her.

"I think you'll find this particularly interesting, I know I did."

Her stomach doing somersaults into her throat, Felicity forced herself to press play. If it was really bad, just terrible, she could always move to Alaska. Really, she didn't mind the snow, and they didn't have the internet there. It would be difficult for her, but she could survive that—a mortifying video spreading through the internet, she couldn't.

The quality of the video seemed to be just good enough that everyone she'd ever known would be able to make out her drunken (bottle of vodka in her hands) antics as she danced on the stage like a cast off from a Beyoncé tour.

Vaguely, she could make out her voice trying to belt out _Titanium_; suddenly changing gears as Tommy was at the edge of the stage trying to coax her into coming down as she tried to tug him up on the stage and get him to dance with her.

When she tripped, stumbling gracelessly off the stage she let out a gasp—she was that girl. She had really become that girl. The drunk girl who was a cautionary tale to others.

On the video, she laughed like she hadn't nearly plunged to her death in an incredible freak accident, and pulled Tommy's face down to hers for a kiss that lasted more than long enough to feel awkward now. Her face burned red with embarrassment, as she imagined what Tommy must have been thinking—oh god, how would she ever look Tommy in the eye again?

They were friends—at least they had been.

There was another minute of painfully awkward stumbling as Tommy set her on her feet, and he and Oliver spoke with the words being nothing she could discern definitely. At one point, Oliver slipped his arm around her waist, and while trying to wiggle away from him to dance…

"Tell me this isn't real." Felicity moaned.

"Oh, you haven't even reached the apex." Oliver laughed. "Wait for it."

Felicity swiveled around on her feet, practically looking straight at the camera, and yelled,

"Going home with Oliver Queen! Just sayin'."

The video faded out into blackness, and Felicity swallowed, not quite able to look over at Oliver.

"Oliver, I need a favor." Felicity said.

"Anything for you." Oliver said, stifling another laugh at the serious look on her face.

"I need an arrow." Felicity told him. "You must have an arrow around this place, right?"

"Felicity," Oliver shook his head, "What are you going to do with an arrow?"

"Pierce out my eyes so that I will never have to see this again." Felicity replied, it was the only sensible solution.

She held out her hand, waiting for the arrow.

"Or…" Oliver told her, "Just as an alternative, you can tell me I'm your hero."

Felicity turned to him, eyebrow raised in a question.

"Are you suddenly taking offense to the term vigilante, because if so you could have picked a friendlier, less threatening name than The Hood."

"I took care of the only copy of the video. This was just for my own personal entertainment." Oliver grinned, "And I didn't even threaten anyone with an arrow."

"You're evolving," Felicity said, "I'm proud of you—but tell me that you didn't pay someone off because I was a drunk idiot."

"I didn't." Oliver lied.

"Well, you're still a bad liar." Felicity said, looking over at him with a smile. "What can I say, Oliver Queen, my own personal superhero."

Oliver tried to hide the smug smile.

"I'll let you change." Oliver told her, setting the tablet back on the side table. "Then we can get some breakfast and I'll drive you home."

"Oh wait, what about my car?" Felicity asked him.

"I'm taking care of that now." Oliver said, rolling his eyes as he remembered the promise he'd made Thea. "I've got a valet whose looking for one more chance to prove himself."

"Be nice to Roy!" Felicity called after him. "He's a good kid."

"I'm always nice."

Oliver grinned, before turning on his heel and leaving.

He wondered if that kid realized how lucky he was. If Felicity and Thea had their way, he'd never be able to shake him.


	20. Uncharted Territory

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Uncharted Territory _

_. . . _

Summary: She has a soft spot for lost causes.

Note: Thanks to everyone as always for reading and reviewing, and sticking with this story for so long! I can't believe it's reached twenty chapters, never mind the 300+ reviews that you have all been so generous with! Also, some people asked if I was ended the story at the twenty chapter mark, and all I have to say is…No. As much as I've sometimes deviated from the original premise of the story…there's still a lot of Olicity to cover, I think. Feel free to keep your requests coming, and FYI (I feel really badly about this as well) there are some requests that were sent to me by some of you at the very beginning of this story that I had saved to my computer before it crashed and were lost, so if you've sent a request/suggestion that I haven't written please feel free to send it again.

Warning: Completely departs from the Roy Harper DC Verse mythos, if that bothers you…but then again, this is an Olicity story, so I highly doubt that any of us are DC purists. I could spend hours grumbling about the feels I have for Harper in the comics but…I digress, and I'll let you enjoy the story.

. . .

Being The Hood's internet researcher and personal GPS wasn't remotely as exhausting as being Oliver's Queen's sounding board.

She had a soft spot for lost causes. It was how she ended up housing more than her fair share of kittens over the years.

Looking around the basement of Verdant only seemed to reinforce Felicity's conviction that this was true. Any sane person would not have taken a profusely bleeding vigilante to a defunct steel factory—she would have called the police, and an ambulance, and hoped that there was a really, really proficient carpet cleaner in the area.

But she wasn't, and she didn't.

"Why are you so damn stubborn?" Felicity exclaimed, in a loud huff of frustration before dropping down in her chair.

Every time she turned around, she felt like the Queen siblings were trying to beat her down with their respective opinions and attitudes. The fact of the matter was, no matter how she tried to turn it around and reorganize the situation in her mind…no matter how badly she wanted to be behind Oliver a hundred and ten percent—

She wasn't on board with this. As a matter of fact, she strongly disagreed with Oliver on this one matter in particular.

Thea and Roy kept pushing her to help find the identity of The Hood. Felicity was running out of lies, excuses, and frankly-any reasons not to, aside from the fact that Oliver had a completely irrational (Okay, fine, maybe he had some basis for his annoying convictions) desire not to trust anyone.

There was something different about this boy, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Which, considering how much she didn't like a mystery, didn't set well with her. She'd sort of tried to push that feeling away, focusing on their prime issues of , one, saving the city, and two, scraping enough of her dignity back up last week to come back to Verdant and look Tommy in the eye.

She considered them both to be works in progress.

_The interesting thing of it was, it had felt kind of like destiny._

_She'd come down to Verdant determined to clear up any awkwardness with Tommy, and fetch the flash drive which had the program she'd developed to override the security camera at Queen Consolidated (God, she was so lucky that she hadn't been fired yet, so why not keep pushing the envelope?). However, apparently Tommy hadn't been in that night, and Oliver was off doing god only knew what, and she didn't even want to think about sitting down at the bar and having a drink._

_Pretty sure she'd had her fill of that until next year. _

_Felicity decided that she'd just head on home, and actually get more than five hours of sleep, maybe even watch a little bit of The Apprentice. He was so mean…but it was so good._

"_Good evening, Ms. Smoak." Artie, one of the bouncers addressed her politely as she walked past, "Early night?"_

"_I've got to be at work early in the morning." Felicity said, slipping the drive into her purse. _

"_You want me to walk you back to your car?" he asked, "Mike is on his way back now, he can take over the door." _

"_Oh, no." Felicity shook his head, "You know, Oliver overreacts. We haven't had a single crime in this lot. It's probably the safest place in the Glades."_

"_Can I have your car pulled around for you then?" Artie asked her, "You know, it's what the boss man is paying these guys for."_

"_No thanks." Felicity told him with a smile, he was so sweet. "It's only a minute's walk, and I want to enjoy the air before it gets too chilly." _

In retrospect, Felicity mused, she probably had no one but herself to blame for that kind of karmic retribution.

_It didn't really feel fair, she already had one of the best parking spots at Verdant. Oliver had insisted that with all of the time she spent here that it was a necessity so he'd had a VIP spot reserved for her. She had every intention of declining it, but she'd been wearing particularly uncomfortable shoes that day…and he had offered._

_Sort of like tonight, she thought, as she walked around the corner into the parking lot; stopping to adjust the new heels that she had put on, and carrying on to her car._

_As she pulled her keys from her bag, her phone rang. She pulled it free to see that it was the office, and slipped her clutch under her arm. Before she could press ignore and slip it back into her purse, she was shoved against the hood of her car as someone ran past her and yanked her bag away from under her arm._

_The flashdrive!_

"_Hey!" Felicity yelled, running after them. "Hey, that's my bag!"_

_As she ran across the parking lot, trying desperately to catch up with them—because she could care less about the fifty dollar Macy's bag, tube of lipstick, and fifteen dollars inside—and get back the flashdrive._

"_Give it back!" _

_Oh god, she realized as she chased them around the back of the building. She was that girl. She was that idiot girl in the movies that she made snide comments about—because what sort of stupid person chases down a purse thief?_

_She was not the hero of the story._

"_Woman, are you crazy?" The boy turned back at her, as she tried to yank the purse free._

"_I'll scream." She said, "Um…loudly. I'll scream really loud."_

"_You dumb ass rich girls."_

"_Look, that bag isn't even worth anything. But you can have it, and the cash, just…" She swallowed nervously, gesturing at her bag. "Just walk away…I just need something in it."_

_With eyebrows stitched together threateningly, angry, he whipped out his arm; shoving her against the side of the building. She let out a scream as he came closer, unable to deal with the fact that her obituary was going to say that her death was a cliché. _

_Felicity dug her nails into the ground and jumped up, realizing she'd better start running—and preferably in the other direction—when someone loped past her in a flash of red and black; knocking the purse thief to the ground with a sharp kick to the jaw, and pummeling him in the stomach until he just laid there._

"_Oh my god." Felicity said, eyes wide as he picked up her bag and turned, tugging the red hood down. "You!"_

"_Me?" Roy pointed at her in confusion, "You! What—is every last female in this town a raving lunatic, it is a purse, for god's sake. What do you have in here? A little bit of makeup, and small bills?"_

_Felicity was taken aback for a moment, and took her purse._

"_Sentimental value." She lied, a little flummoxed still._

"_Thea's brother's girlfriend." Roy shook his head, "This was supposed to be an easier job."_

_Okay, she wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, but hey—it wasn't like Oliver was the most congenial hero, either._

"_Well, I'm uh…not." Felicity told him, "And if it makes you feel any better, I didn't picture Thea's boyfriend giving The Hood a run for his money."_

"_It's not like that." He said, "I just uh…thought it sounded like trouble."_

_Roy jerked his head toward the club, unzipping the red hoodie. _

"_I was on my break." He gestured at her, "You sure you're okay? You've got kind of a nasty looking cut there." _

"_Fine. Fine." Felicity said, shaking her head as she felt the spark of an idea. _

_He could fight, like he could really, really fight._

"_How did you do that?" she asked, pressing for some details._

"_I made a fist." He said dryly. _

"_Seriously," Felicity said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along with her. "I mean, that's not just something that happens—he was twice your size. You took him down in thirty seconds."_

"_I grew up in the Glades," Roy said, detaching her hand from his arm. "Are you sure you're okay?"_

_Like that wasn't a lie if ever she heard one—okay, fine; so maybe it was someone leaving out the truth. He wasn't just some vigilante obsessive; he had the ability to do something, and the desire. No one else heard her scream and came running, now did they?_

"_Fine…um…" Felicity saw her car, and it snapped her back into the moment. "Can we just keep this between us? Like don't bother mentioning this to Oliver, or Tommy…anyone?"_

"_Can you refrain from running toward the bad guys?" Roy asked her. "You got lucky, you know that, right? He could just as easily have given you a lot worse than a cut above your eye."_

_Fantastic, another lecture. Like she couldn't get that as easily from Oliver?_

_Felicity nodded her head eagerly, _

"_Thank you, again." She patted him on the shoulder, trying to bit down on the smile that threatened to escape._

_Who'd have thought getting her purse snatched would be so great._

She'd been unfurling the mystery of Roy Harper for weeks now.

Felicity had sat in front of her computer watching the video of him when he'd been abducted over a dozen times. There was something in her that couldn't…get past how _close_ it had been. How someone could look death in the eye like he did, and not fight—to have that low of an opinion of themselves.

Looking at someone so young, and so scared, and seeing him say it touched something inside of her.

She'd really thought that had been it though. That as much as it had eaten her up inside, and as relieved as she was that Oliver had been able to save him, that he was just one more poverty stricken kid who had fallen through the cracks.

After that night at Verdant it had become a little bit like an obsession for her. She'd unearthed every record on the kid, from his birth certificate, to his police record (Which, oh my god. But then she compared it to Oliver's…) his school record—he dropped out, finally to a death certificate for his mom, Elizabeth Harper.

It was no wonder that he was so tough and abrasive. The more that she read, the deeper she delved into who Roy Harper was…the more she was amazed by the sort of kid he was. She didn't know if she could have held her life together like this.

His father, who as far as she could see, wasn't much of a father at all; was serving consecutive sentences for holding up a liquor store, where he'd shot the owner dead. The prison records didn't show any visitations, and it looked like there were going to be another twenty years to his sentence.

"Felicity," Oliver called, the door closing loudly behind him, "Do you—"

Quickly, she turned off the screens and swiveled around in the chair to face him.

"You know, I'd feel so much better if you wore a bell." Felicity said, jumping up and walking past him. "Actually, I'd feel better with a cup of coffee. Do you have coffee up there? We should grab a cup of coffee and you should tell me all about it."

"Okay, I'm not exactly sure why you're doing this twitchy thing," Oliver said, grabbing her arm and leading her back to the computers. "But I need you to check something for me."

"Great." Felicity pulled away from him, and yanked her tablet free from her bag. "That's me, Oliver Queen's personal internet researcher. What's the question of the day?"

Oliver pointed over at the computers, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just convince me to spend an inordinate amount of money to upgrade that system—and we're back to a seven hundred dollar tablet?"

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Felicity, is everything okay?"

"It's been a long day?" she tried.

"It's eleven in the morning." Oliver told her.

"Well, I was…up early." Felicity said quickly, "Why are you being so combative today?"

Desperately, she tried to turn it back on him again. Debating the Roy Harper thing was so not a topic she relished having—at least, not yet.

Oliver walked past her to turn on the computers, and Felicity cringed, waiting for a moment to see him speak.

"Felicity," He gestured to the computers, each screen filled with information about his sister's boyfriend. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"My…curiosity got the better of me?" she tried, "You know, it's a real problem. When I found out that the uh—you—came back from being stranded on an island for five years I uh…I lost it on google. It was very ugly. The searching—not you. I mean, obviously not you…"

Her voice trailed off as she realized Oliver was staring intently at her.

"Please stop doing that." She said, "It's…not what you think?"

"I don't….even know what I think." Oliver shook his head, "What…what is this?"

"A…project." Felicity decided with a nod of her head.

Not that she was lying. She would say that this was currently her number one project.

_I mean…well, it wasn't completely out of the question. Look at all of the good he did, and how much more good he could do with a partner. Exponentially so._

Felicity was lax to use the word 'sidekick', no one wanted to be the sidekick. She'd had that word wiped from their vocabulary—she was not a sidekick.

"So you were hacking into…" Oliver gestured, "For fun?"

"Oh come on," Felicity said, "You think I just unwind by watching cute cat videos on the internet?"

"Yes." Oliver said with a nod of his head, "Actually, you do."

"Okay, you only know that because you don't knock."

"You can't just babble your way out of this." Oliver told her, his eyes going back to the screen again.

"Ha!" Felicity said as she realized he was trying to skim the information on the screen. "You're dying to know what I found, aren't you?"

"It's my brotherly duty." Oliver said, eyebrows stitched together as he looked at the police record. "It's good to know that my sister found someone with such a varied criminal record, so that's great."

"You've heard the one about the pot and the kettle, right?" Felicity told him, "Trust me, I've seen your record, and I'd say that you're breaking even."

"Whose side are you on?" Oliver asked her as she slipped between him and the screen and started closing out of the information.

"That's not fair." Felicity said, "You know that I'm on your side."

"Hey, wait…" Oliver pushed her hand aside as he caught a glimpse of the security footage from Verdant. "What's that?"

"Okay, firstly…" Felicity nudged his hand away from her mouse. "You don't see me playing with your arrow do you?"

_Oh god, that didn't come out right._

Oliver cocked his head slightly, and looked down at her with a question behind his eyes.

"You know how I um…have suggested to you that maybe—"

"Yeah, you think the blue eyed kid is a good kid." Oliver said.

"That's offensive." Felicity said, holding her finger up at him to silence him. "I told you that I don't think that he is a bad kid, that he seems like a good kid who probably had a rough draw in life—which, for the record, actually is the case (so that would make me right, not that I'm nitpicking)—and deserves a second chance."

"You also thought that the money launderer deserved a second chance, and now he's in the Cayman's with three million that people invested with him." Oliver reminded her.

"I don't like you very much right now." Felicity told him. "And that is one bad example, Oliver. Just—just watch this."

She played the footage that showed her being cornered by the purse snatcher, and shoved to the ground before Roy dove into the fray, red hood eclipsing his face. Felicity watched Oliver's face as he watched the short fight, but it was tough sometimes to eke out how he was feeling—his face was a mask.

Felicity realized after she watched the video the first time that Roy was smart enough to not slip off the hood until they rounded the corner and were out of sight of the camera.

"When did this happen?" Oliver asked her.

Uh oh. Felicity cringed. She'd sort of forgotten that when Oliver had originally asked her how she got that cut over her eye that she might have alluded to it being a little accident. She'd really hated lying to him, but she really, really didn't want to bring up the subject of Roy until she had a concrete argument with all her points outlined effectively.

Together, she really believed that Oliver and Roy could do something incredible together.

"Felicity," Oliver stressed, walking around the chair and leaning against the desk as he looked at her. "Why didn't you tell me about this? That could have been serious—why would you chase after your purse?"

"Well, I already got that lecture," Felicity said, "So we can fast forward through—'are the contents of your purse that important?' because it was, and everything turned out fine."

Oliver didn't look happy with this summation.

"As happy as I am that someone was there to help you," Oliver said, "Why the big secret?"

"Mostly because I've been thinking about this for a while," Felicity told him, "and I know that you've got me behind the computer, and you've got Digg as backup, but what if you really had a partner. Someone who could go out there on an even keel—"

"Even?" Oliver said, looking mildly offended at the accusation.

"Oliver." Felicity leaned forwards, her voice inching up excitedly as she tried to explain what she was thinking to him. "No, of course he doesn't have what you have—but he has an incredible foundation. He's strong, smart—I know the criminal record doesn't look good, but he's been turning his life around—and most importantly he has that drive."

"What do you mean?" Oliver sighed, rubbing the palms of his hand over his face.

Felicity knew that he thought she was taking this too far—like out of the stratosphere far, but she really believed in this. They could both be good for each other.

"Not only does he feel like The Hood changed his life around, but he wants to help others. He and I were not the only ones in the parking lot that night." Felicity said, "I checked. There were six other people in the vicinity, but when I screamed he was the only one—the only one who came running."

"You proved that he's a decent human being, and that I clearly can't let you out of my sight." Oliver groaned, "And that I'm hiring better security. _More_ security. Quite possible someone whose only job is to keep you out of trouble."

"Or you can get Tommy to hire some other kid to park cars, and teach him." Felicity looked up at him hopefully, "Teach him to be like you."

"I really don't think that being like me is the answer to anyone's problems." Oliver said.

"I think that Starling City could use a lot more people like you." Felicity replied stubbornly.

"That's because you have an irrationally high opinion of me." Oliver told her, getting up from where he'd been leaning.

"Oliver, wait," Felicity grabbed his arm and pulled him back to the table. "I know this gives you a lot to think about—I mean, it would be huge. It would be a huge risk, and a huge decision, and so much to take on…"

She sighed, almost discouraging herself in the process.

"Just look at this."

"Okay." Oliver agreed, seeming to cease the arguing for a moment.

"This is Elizabeth Harper, Roy's mother." Felicity said, gesturing to the article on screen. "She was killed four years ago when some gangsters broke into their house."

Felicity felt a little shiver in her spine as she told the rest of the story.

"He had just gotten home from school…" Felicity bit down on her lip hard.

"The police suspected a local group, but he couldn't make a positive ID on who shot his mother and the DA didn't take the case to trial." Oliver's eyebrow's furrowed together.

"They turned the gun on him, and his mom shoved him out of the way." Felicity said. "Look…"

Felicity's voice trailed off as she tried to work out what she was trying to say, but it wasn't exactly something she could completely put into words. She just got that feeling in her chest that Oliver had given her.

She hadn't had a single reason in the world to trust him, to think that he would be this incredible person that he was—but she had just known that he was more than what she saw on the surface.

"I'm not saying that because something bad happened to him when he was a kid makes him something special, god…this could be one of a dozen of almost the same cases in the Glades, but Oliver," Felicity tried to impart on him how strongly she felt. "He's not like the rest. I know you have no reason to go along with me on this—but he's something special."

_Special like you_, she thought. _Special enough to make a real change in the world with a little help._

"Felicity, if I was going to trust anyone's judgment—I'd go with you." Oliver told her, "You have a perceptive eye for people, and you see the good in places where I'm not always able to—it's what makes you such an inimitable member of this team."

"Thank you." Felicity told him, leaving the thought hanging in the air, waiting to see what he would do.

"But it's not something as simple as believing in someone." Oliver told her.

"Why not?" Felicity said, "You didn't know what I would do, and you believed in me."

"It's a little more selfish than that." Oliver said, "As much of a change as you believe he could make in the city, I see the change he's made in my sister—as much as I hate to admit it…"

Oliver sighed, "I know that she struggled when I was gone. She was so young, and he changed everything around for her. I'm worried that if we went ahead and did this…what's the next step? Do I tell her? Would we make him keep that secret from her?"

Felicity felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she considered his words. She'd missed a step.

"I can't hurt her again."

"No, no you're right." Felicity nodded her head, realizing that in all her scheming she hadn't even really thought of Oliver's sister.

She closed out of all of the files when Oliver laid his hand across hers.

"Believing in people means facing disappointment sometimes." Oliver told her, "I'm just not ready yet. It doesn't mean never. And it doesn't mean that I don't think that you're right, and that he's a kid with a lot of potential…just not with me."

"You didn't disappoint me." Felicity told him, a smile crossing her face. "You're a lot of things, Oliver Queen—but you've never been a disappointment."

. . .


	21. Day Off

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Day Off _

. . .

Summary: Felicity's day off is filled with one problem after another.

Note: Because I'm back at work, updates might not be able to come _as_ frequently—however, I'm still going to try and get one up every other day, every two days. I didn't get around to thanking everyone personally for their reviews and chapter suggestions, so I want to say thanks so much as always for that, and for reading and reviewing.

. . .

If Felicity had thought that she was stretched thinly before, it was nothing compared to trying tosome sort of balance searchingtoday.

_Maybe_, she thought, _that was the punishment a nice girl gets for making definite plans to do nothing on the one day off she had in months._

Her 'day off' had imploded when her cousin Robin was visiting, up from Coast City with his wife Christine, and their twins. Robin had called, telling her that the twins were just dying to spend some time with their 'Auntie' Felicity. No sooner had they left the kids and zipped out theof her apartment with hardly a 'bye' and 'have fun'. She had only just introduced them to Addie—Guys, no! Please don't pull her ears!—when her phone rang.

A Trojan in their security had been discovered in the system, running her new at Queen Consolidated and they absolutely needed her to come and fix it. On the drive into work, both of the twins in her backseat reminded her that they were supposed to be in their big kid seats, all the while bellowing about how it wasn't fair for every minute of the fifteen minute drive. Somehow, she was starting to think that Robin had over exaggerated how intent they were on spending time with her.

She was easily on the verge of screaming or crying—or both—when her phone started beeping furiously to notify her that her program had hit another firewall at Verdant.

Well of course it did.

Felicity had been pouring over code for the last hour and a half, and in any sort of normal circumstances she'd nearly have this all wrapped up—but it was like she'd hardly even begun.

She wasn't sure if it was the firewalls that kept popping up for her Verdant program, or the terrible twins who were driving her crazier.

"I'm hungry!" Jamie shrieked, for the eighth time in the last hour. "You promised a snack!"

"I want to watch my show and it's not working!" Jenna whined, shaking the tablet violently.

_Oh thank god I didn't subject Addie to them. _

Felicity flinched behind her desk, a small part of her heart crying out to see her tablet being treated like that. It had survived near misses from arrows and the bar at Verdant, never mind Diggle and Oliver's rough handling; but now it was one sticky fingered fit from crashing to the floor of her office.

"Jamie, I _got_ you a snack." Felicity told him, her voice filled with desperation. "You _both_ got the gummy snacks. Remember?"

"Mama's not gonna like that." Jenna sing-songed, with a sweetness in her voice that belied her clearly vindictive nature. "We aren't allowed to have sugar."

Felicity stifled her colorful retort in regard to where Robin and Christina could put that.

"You messed up." Jenna said with a smug smile that was made her seem older, and downright evil.

"Well what mama doesn't know won't hurt her!" Felicity snapped, losing her temper when she lost her spot, _again_, in the long screen of code.

If this wasn't what hell was like…well, it would be a welcome change.

Felicity groaned, burying her head in her arms on top of the desk and wondering if she could shove them in a file cabinet and just feign ignorance.

There was a perfectly five-year-old sized footlocker at Verdant that Oliver stashed his arrows in.

_Accidents happened._

"I want to go to the vending machine!" Jamie howled, swinging his legs over the edge of his seat and kicking the front of her desk. "I want to go now! You promised!"

"I did not!" Felicity objected. "I said that you would be allowed to pick out another snack if you both behave, and…"

Felicity looked around her office and squeezed her eyes shut. It looked like a tornado hit. They had completely terrorized it.

She'd made the rookie mistake of walking away for all of a minute to take care of a problem her assistant was having only to come back and find every piece of paper in her office strewn across the floor, frames knocked off the wall, and her well-earned degree from MIT with a long, deep scratch down the middle when the glass shattered.

But then it only got better. Somehow, they had managed with their little five year old kid bodies to yank her phone line from the wall, so she hoped there weren't any emergencies that would require her attention.

"Make it work!" Jenna squealed in a high pitched tone that made her ears hurt. "I want to watch Good Luck Charlie!"

"Well, right now I'd like a little good luck myself." Felicity mumbled, turning to look at Jamie who was still kicking her desk. "You stop that! Right this instant! I'm trying to work."

"So?" Jamie said with an indifferent shrug of his little shoulders. "Make me."

"You don't want me to!" Felicity pointed her pen at him sharply. "Do you want to be in trouble, young man?"

Jamie stuck out his tongue at her.

"I'm not afraid of you."

"You promised we were gonna go to the zoo." Jenna objected crossly, pushing her bottom lip out in a pout and banging her hands down on the tablet.

"I did not!" Felicity said, "I thought that this was my day off when you're dad called and asked me to watch you—and—JAMES MICHEAL GILBERT! Stop kicking my desk!"

"Then you had better start doing what we tell you." Jamie said, "We're bored."

"I'll tell mommy you said a bad word." Jenna threatened with a serious look onher face.

And she'd thought that the Triad was tough?

"I…" Felicity was at a loss as to what this 'bad word' possibly could have been.

No? Because it didn't seem like these spoiled brats heard that word very often.

"Just…please!" Felicity was ashamed to finally resort to begging. "I just need a little quiet. This is really, really important."

Jamie twisted his face around in a skeptical look before jumping off of the chair and walking around the desk to look at her screen.

"It looks stupid." He declared.

"I'm bored of sitting here all these hours." Jenna wailed, "It makes me sick!"

"You need a better argument." Felicity told her, determined to try and take a stand for herself.

The inmates will not run the asylum.

"That's the worst excuse I've ever heard and I get them from the king og BS excuses."

"What's BS?" Jenna asked.

Oh crap, Felicity thought.

She was distracted from that problem when Jamie started tugging open the drawers to her desk. Felicity would have fought him on it, if he and his sister hadn't already torn everything out and onto the floor.

"Guys, I have to take care of this…"

Felicity was distracted again as she saw she was hitting another firewall from Verdant.

"C'mon!" she exclaimed, waving her hands at the screen. "What is this? No one's security is this good!"

Well yours is, she thought. But then again, she had a very good reason.

Jamie pushed at her chair and she turned to look at him.

"What?"

"I need to get over there." Jamie pointed to the other side of her desk, around the chair. "You're in my way."

"No." Felicity told him, giving him a nudge back. "Sit down, Jamie. In the chair."

"You're just a dumb girl." Jamie told her, a combative edge in his eyes. "I don't have to do what you say."

"Yeah, well you're not so bright yourself." Felicity replied.

Jenna let out an aggravated yell and threw the tablet across the room. It hit the opening door with a loud, resounding crack that hurt Felicity in her soul; only feeling better when it was Oliver who walked in—of course it was, who else considered a closed door a welcome invitation?—looking around the room in surprise.

"Well, I can see why the door was closed."

"Oh, thank God." Felicity looked to him, and felt a sense of relief.

She had never been so happy to have him barge into her office.

"What…" Oliver shook his head, glancing away from the twins to the tablet, picking it off of the floor. "Well, I don't know how salvageable that's going to be."

"Please…just don't…." Felicity shook her head, unable to bear looking at it yet. "If I look at that, I _will_ cry."

Oliver's eyebrow's furrowed together as she set the tablet on top of a tall file cabinet, and gestured at the kids, both of whom were looking at him through narrowed, distrustful eyes.

_Ha_! She thought, at least the odds were evened out now.

"Jamie, Jenna…" Felicity said, pointing at them one at a time. "Don't you love how they've remodeled my office? They're my cousin Robin's kids. Guys this is Oliver…Queen."

Somehow, she didn't think they'd know the difference, or care.

"Hello guys." Oliver said.

"Ooh…are you her boyfriend?" Jenna giggled, dragging out the word for an infinitely long time.

Because it wasn't embarrassing enough, was it? Felicity thought.

Oliver shut the door, seemingly unbothered by being razzed by a five year old.

"No way," Jamie said with a shake of his head as he looked between Felicity and Oliver. "Dad says you don't have a boyfriend, because you always—"

"Finish that sentence and you won't make it to Chanukah this year." Felicity warned him, pointing her finger at him.

"It looks like you're having a rough time." Oliver told her. "I promise I'm not here to pile on."

He smiled a crooked half-smile that even amidst all the crazy made her stomach tingle a little.

"Felicity!" Jamie bellowed, apparently unhappy to have the attention directed at someone other than himself.

Jamie tried to kick her chair and missed, kicking her in the shin.

"Jamie! That…" Felicity let out a groan of pain. "That hurt! Why—a"

Before she could finish her lecture, and think about how she'd like to kick him in the shin and see how it felt, Oliver swept Jamie up with an arm around his waist and held him there like a little football.

"That's uncalled for. You don't kick or hit a girl."

"You're…" Jamie seemed to lose his bravado as Oliver didn't let him squirm out of his grip. "Put me down now!"

Jenna pushed her lip out, "That's bullying!"

She pointed a finger at Oliver accusingly.

"I'll bite you." Jamie threatened, baring his teeth.

"I've got a sister. Do your worst." Oliver told him, "I don't scare that easily."

"Bullying isn't allowed." Jenna said, "Mama doesn't like it."

"And what was it that you were doing to me all day?" Felicity asked with an incredulous tone as she rubbed the growing bruise on her leg.

God, she couldn't wait to return these kids.

"I'm definitely telling my mom!" Jenna said. "You'll all be in big trouble."

Oliver looked to Felicity, "Is she for real? She…she thinks this is real?"

Felicity nodded her head.

"Wow," he shook his head, "And I thought Thea was a brat."

Oliver placed Jamie on his feet, who looked like he was tempted to try and kick Oliver, but decided better of it. Felicity would have liked to see him try it, after the day she'd been having it would make for a good laugh.

"Both of you, backs up against the wall."

Neither of them moved.

Oliver whistled sharply, "I hope you're not waiting for a written invitation. Backs—wall."

For a moment, it looked like it wouldn't work, but they both scurried against the wall to wait for further orders. Felicity could only watch in awe. It was incredible.

"Oh, I love you."

With a flash of burning embarrassment, Felicity snapped her mouth shut and hoped Oliver hadn't heard her.

"Who threw all these papers on the ground?" Oliver asked, looking between them like a stern drill sergeant.

Quickly, they both pointed the finger at each other.

"Good, I'm glad we're all in agreement." Oliver said, "You can work as a team. Pick them up and put them in a neat pile. Quietly. A word out of either one of you, and you can sit in the corner all day and all night."

Felicity was stunned as they complied, quietly scrambling around her office and picking up their mess.

"You're amazing." She said in a low breath. "I mean, I know it…and I've said it before, but…wow."

Oliver chuckled, leaning over her shoulder with a smile on his face as he glanced at the screen.

"Kids are like animals, they can smell fear."

"They're terrifying." She said in a whisper. "Where did you learn this?"

"I do have a baby sister." Oliver told her, leaning back against the wall. "Besides, whenever Tommy and I would get in trouble—hey!"

Oliver looked up at the twins as they stopped, Jenna whispering something to Jamie.

"You want to have to go and scrape gum off of the benches too? Trust me, there's no end to the work to be done. It's a huge building."

"No." Jenna shook her head.

"Yeah. We're…sorry." Jamie said.

They both quickly turned back to piling up the papers.

"Whenever Tommy and I got in trouble—Thea too—we used to have to come here and do whatever terrible tasks my dad could come up with."

"That's…ingenious." Felicity said, "But considering how much trouble you got in, it couldn't have left much work for the janitorial staff."

"It was a light couple of years." Oliver told her, "Speaking of that? Isn't this your day off?"

"Don't remind me." Felicity sighed, "Sometimes I wish I wasn't so good at my job. There's a Trojan on the network and it was siphoning off all kinds of information. I'm trying to piggyback on the signal and try and figure out where it came from. More than likely, it could be corporate espionage. I found one a couple of years ago, and tracked it to a subsidiary of the Galaxy Broadcasting Corporation, and they used it to get all these stories about the CFO."

"True stories?" Oliver said with a note of interest.

"Yeah." Felicity said with a nod of her head. "Don't worry, I don't think they would try it again, but I'll find out who it is targeting the company."

"Because you're the best." Oliver said, nudging her.

"Also why I will get through the mess of firewalls trying to keep me out of the NSA framework." Felicity told him, looking backwards at him. "I'd nearly be there if it wasn't for…"

"Crisis averted." Oliver told her, he whistled; getting the kids' attention. "Guess what kids, there is a mess with your names on it somewhere in this building. I think we're gonna go find it!"

Both of them looked upset.

"Felicity!" Jenna cried, "Aunt Felicity, please don't make us! We'll be good."

"How the tides have turned," Oliver whispered in her ear.

"I'm really sorry." Jamie said eagerly, "We both are."

"What are you going to do with them?" Felicity whispered back.

"Put an arrow in them." Oliver replied quietly.

"That's funny." Felicity said. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd almost believe you."

"C'mon guys!" Oliver clapped his hands together once, "Felicity is going to work, and you're going to work twice as hard."

He tugged the door open, "Let's go."

The twins looked back to her with a wistful, begging sort of look.

"Thank you!" She called after Oliver. "I owe you one."

"I think that we're still strongly in the 'I owe you' column." Oliver told her, "Don't worry. This is fun for me."

_And she thought he was amazing before, _Felicity sighed, turning back to her computer once they left.

For a second, she just leaned back in her chair and took a breath. Quiet. Peace. There was just so much peace and quiet.

She leaned forward, giving both screens a fierce look.

"You're going down." She said.

. . .

"We apologize." Jamie said in a small voice, standing next to his sister with the start of an apology.

"We took advantage of you because you were nice, and we knew you wouldn't tell us no." Jenna said, hanging her head. "It was bad."

"We really hope that you'll forgive us." Jamie said.

Jamie dashed around the desk, throwing his arms around her waist and hugging her.

"I'm really sorry I kicked you. I didn't mean it." He leaned in close and whispered, "Please don't make us go back with him. We're really, really sorry."

Felicity laughed, looking up at Oliver.

"What did you do?"

"Guys," Oliver addressed the twin, "Tell Felicity all about your hard work."

"Someone spilled popcorn on the floor and we picked it all up." Jenna said, "and then the man behind the desk asked up to clean off the mirrors in the front hall."

"And we cleaned the windows upstairs." Jamie said.

"Walter says thank you, by the way." Oliver told her, "He said they haven't been that clean in a decade, and that they are welcome back anytime to clean more."

"We're ready to go home if you're ready." Jenna said.

"Please." Jamie tacked on.

Felicity sat in her chair, shaking her head and smiling.

"Did you thank Oliver for showing you such a good time?"

"Thank you." The twins said in unison.

Felicity got up, and slipped into her jacket. _Much better_.

"You have to teach me this." Felicity whispered into Oliver's ear as she walked past him.

Jamie swallowed nervously as Oliver started to follow them.

"You're coming back to Aunt Felicity's with us?"

"Should I?" Oliver said, a twinkle shining in his blue eyes. "You know, maybe. My calendar is all clear."

The twins turned to her, a pleading look in their eyes.

"Oliver," Felicity laughed, "Now you're just scaring them. Guys, we're going home, your parents should be there to pick you up in a couple hours. You can get a movie from Netflix, and eat some junk food—good?"

Both of them nodded their heads eagerly, practically tripping over themselves to thank her.

As they walked out of the door, Felicity relieved to be less than a half hour away from wiping her hands of these kids, Jenna and Jamie sneezed one after the other.

_Oh no,_ Felicity thought.

"Are you guys' sick?"

She shook her head, "Uh uh. Mama says its our allergies, and not to worry."

Felicity leaned in near Oliver and sighed, "This is going to be the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it?"


	22. Sick Day

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_Sick Day _

. . .

Summary: Felicity takes a sick day.

Note: Firstly, OHMYGOD, I guess this is what I get for making a blatant point that I would have a slew of new updates coming, and having two stories going at once, etc. School and Work just both sort of took over my life with craziness all at once…but it seems like things have calmed down a bit. So, back to writing on a regular basis—unfortunately, not daily updates—I'm going to aim for a minimum of two a week. If you're waiting for chapter 4 of Far From Paradise, I'm hoping to get that up within the week as well, and thank you everyone for being so patient! You're the best readers ever! Also, this chapter was a request from quisinart4, and I'll be getting to other requests as things carry on.

. . .

Felicity sneezed loudly, her nose twitching and rubbed raw after a long, sleepless night of Puffs and Vicks vapor rub. So much for all those vitamins, and the herbal lie that kept her choking down orange juice for the first two weeks of flu season.

She groaned, burrowing further under her blankets, and rolled over in bed. This was awful, she _had_ to be better tomorrow, and there was just too much work to do.

_How was Oliver coping without her?_

Sometime over the course of the last twenty hours, she'd lost the motivation to do just about anything. This wasn't fair. She was not a 'getting sick' sort of person. No, Felicity Megan Smoak graduated high school with a perfect attendance record, and over the course of three years with Queen Consolidated this was the first time she had missed a day of work.

Peering over the edge of her bed she saw the heaping basket of tissues and crinkled her nose. This was so gross. Her phone was beeping on the side table, and she picked it up.

_Allergies, right_. Felicity decided that when she was not feeling like death wouldn't be a spectacular alternative to how she was currently feeling-ignoring again the knocking on her door, because as good of a friend as Hannah was she didn't want to do anything more strenuous than roll over to the other side of the bed-she was hacking his life apart.

She let out a sigh of relief when her neighbor seemed to give up and go away.

Naturally, she couldn't have just gotten rid of the twins...she was so glad they left their flu here too.

Felicity could hear Addy whining in her living room. It wasn't like she didn't feel bad about it, she probably should have asked someone to watch her for a few days. Addy really was not used to being ensconced in the apartment with no people, and no walk.

Digg wouldn't have minded, he loved dogs. She was sure her assistant Erica would have taken her too. Addy just had this way about her that made people fall over themselves with love and adulation—well, everyone except Oliver, Felicity corrected herself. Then again, Oliver seemed to be impervious to all sorts of female kind, and the feelings they had for him.

_Oh…you are not going there. Forget sick, you are at the edge of a mental break if you are going there, Felicity Megan Smoak._

Picking up her phone, she squinted at it through blurry eyes, seeing a black screen. She'd turned the ringer off after work kept calling without a break. There were a few calls from Oliver too. The battery had since died, and she hadn't the inclination to charge it, because if it was charged she would feel the need to answer the plethora of calls.

She shook her head, thinking she probably should have called him. At the very least to warn him to treat her computers gently. They were sensitive, and not accustomed to Oliver's temper when things weren't progressing according to his timeline, or worse, going in the direction that he liked.

Blowing her nose again Felicity felt relieved that the Echinacea seemed to...not be working well enough, she amended, as she blew her nose again, the acid in her stomach churning all the more. This was taking up all the tissues in the history of the world. Her cold was literally contributing to deforestation.

It seemed like a small price to pay, seeing as how the vomiting had currently ceased.

Felicity rubbed the heels of her palm against her sore, itchy eyes trying to decide if she wanted to settle in with a mug of lemon tea with a touch of honey and _Chicago_, or some chamomile and _His Girl Friday_. Cary Grant was her go to guy, after all; especially when she was feeling under the weather. So _His Girl Friday_ it was.

This musing was interrupted as Addy started to whine, scratching again at the door with incredible urgency. It wasn't like she wasn't paper trained, but Felicity wouldn't be totally surprised if Addy had a little bit of a temper tantrum herself at this sort of unjust treatment.

"Addy!" Felicity cried, through a stuffed nose. "Please stop crying! I'll..."

Her voice trailed off as Addy started growling, and she could hear something-_someone_?-on her balcony. This day was only getting better.

_No, you're being neurotic. You live on the fifteenth floor, and its probably a squirrel—or a skunk. _

For a moment, she consoled herself by remembering that it had happened before. A skunk had escaped into one of her neighbor's apartments from the balcony before.

_Then again, it could be a burglar who thinks the apartment is empty because it's the middle of the week, and will kill you before you can call 911._

She slipped off of the bed, and pulled the baseball bat free from behind her bedside table.

It had been a gag gift when she moved into her first apartment after college, but now she was really, really hoping this was a case of a fever hallucination, and not the moment of truth for the American Slugger.

Felicity crept toward the door of her bedroom, stifling a gasp as she heard the click of the balcony door.

This was not happening. She lived in a _supposedly_ nice high rise-and _didn't_ security have to buzz people in?

_Don't be stupid, you don't need security when you break in through a balcony! _

She hid behind the wall, and clutched the bat tightly. God, she hoped this was a mistake. Addy was barking furiously, and Felicity suspected she couldn't be hallucinating that or the nervous heart palpitations.

_You should call Oliver_, a little voice in her head told her.

_Yeah, well, a little late for that_. She thought, hearing heavy footsteps through the apartment.

Diggle was right, she really should have taken those self-defense classes more seriously. Felicity bit down on her lip as she heard Addy growling, and a gruff male voice shush her with a hiss.

_Don't panic_. She told herself, squeezing the handle of the bat tightly in her hands.

She heard the footsteps coming closer, and cringed, turning into the doorway and swinging the bat as hard as she could.

"Felicity!" Oliver exclaimed, yanking the bat away from her, before she cracked his ribcage. "Are you crazy?"

"Me!" Felicity asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise as she realized that the dangerous, terrifying intruder that had nearly given her a heart attack was neither a squirrel or a killer, but _Oliver_? "Am _I_ crazy? You broke into my apartment!"

His eyebrows stitched together as he looked at the bat he was still holding, "Why do you even own a bat?"

"Oliver!" Do you really think that is relevant?" Felicity yelled at him, reaching behind her door to grab her robe, as the oversize MIT shirt was about six inches too short to be even remotely appropriate for a conversation of this sort.

"I…" Oliver's voice trailed off as he looked over her, and her room. "You weren't answering your phone."

"I have a _door_. And a doorbell, not that you would notice." Felicity told him, tying the robe around her before calling to Addy. "It's just Oliver, shush!"

"You weren't answering that either." Oliver informed her, setting the bat down against the wall. "I stopped by the company and they told me you hadn't been in for two days."

Felicity was about to explain to him that firstly, she was sick, and secondly, a sick day was no excuse for breaking into her home, when she felt that familiar churning in her stomach.

"Oh no…" she said quietly, covering her mouth with her hand, and running toward the bathroom.

"Felicity!" Oliver called after her.

She slammed the door to her bathroom shut.

She retched into the toilet, thinking of all the things she wanted to say to Oliver. The barging in thing had been sort of cute up to this point, right before it bordered on breaking and entering. This was getting—

"You could have told me you were sick." Oliver told her, gathering her hair back as she threw up. "You can't just disappear for two days."

Felicity was torn between the miserable mortification of having him watch her vomit, and wanting to remind him that he was being something of a hypocrite—it wasn't like he told her where he was every day of the week. She was frequently left worrying whether he'd fallen over the edge of some building, or taken another bullet in the chest.

"Ugh." Felicity groaned, and reached for a towel. After she made sure there was nothing incredible unseemly, she turned and glanced at him, his hands returned to his sides.

Gathering up enough anger to really chew him out wasn't quite working. Experience had shown her that the number of guys who rushed into a bathroom to hold back your hair while you were throwing up was slimmer than the number of guys who would rush into a burning building.

"A closed door means nothing to you, does it?"

She turned back away from him, and picked up her toothbrush.

"And don't you dare say that they didn't have doors on the island." Felicity warned him, toothbrush mangling her words slightly. "You've tired that excuse to death."

Oliver grinned slightly, leaning up against the door as he waited for her.

"You should have told me you have the flu." Oliver told her.

"It's just a cold." Felicity told him. "I'll be fine by tomorrow."

Her stomach churned a little as she rinsed off her toothbrush and put it back.

Or maybe the next day.

"Really?" Oliver said with a raised eyebrow, gesturing for her to go past him. "Is that what your doctor told you?"

"Mm hm." Felicity made a sort of noncommittal sound in her throat as she tried to tidy up her bed a little. "But anyways, uh…did you need help with something?"

"This isn't a business call." Oliver said, and handed her jacket onto the bed. "If you've been sick for two days, you should see a doctor."

"I'm not a really a doctor sort of girl." Felciity told him, "and I'm actually a lot better."

"I don't even want to know what you were like yesterday then." Oliver told her, "Maybe I should just call him here."

"Uh, Oliver, this is the new millennium. I think doctors stopped making house calls about fifty years ago."

"You'd be amazed by what I can accomplish."

"Please," Felicity laughed, "What you can accomplish amazed me a long time ago."

She threw her jacket back to him, "Really. I just need another day of rest and some hot tea."

Oliver stood there like a stone for a moment, clearly not happy that this was not going his way. This was exactly what she meant. He could he as stubborn as a child.

"Fine." He said, crossing his arms against his chest. "Go back to bed, I'll make you some tea…and soup."

"No!" Felicity objected, feeling her cheeks burn red. "You are not—we are not doing that. I'm sure that there is some bad guy somewhere who needs an arrow in him."

For a second, she entertained the thought of asking Oliver to put an arrow in her cousin…but that was an unfair abuse of power if anything. He was not her arrow for hire.

"Nothing that can't wait." Oliver told her. "C'mon Felicity, you can't do everything on your own."

Oliver pulled off his jacket, and stuck it across the chair in her room.

"Let me take care of you. You've got my back every night, and day…it's my turn now. What do you need?"

Felicity heard Addy resuming her whining again, and realized that maybe it was time to test Oliver's resolve at being the hero.

"Addy hasn't had a walk in three days." Felicity told him, "So if you really want to stick around…you could take her on a walk."

Oliver looked almost dumbfounded for a moment.

"It's not too late to go." Felicity reminded him.

"Absolutely not." Oliver told her, grabbing his jacket with a smile. "I will make a pot of tea, take the little monster for a perfectly pleasant walk, and return with some soup."

Unable to help herself, Felicity let out a laugh.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Oliver asked her.

"You're going to make me…soup?" Felicity chuckled at the end, "Oh Oliver, this isn't some sort of test to see how good of a friend you are. I'm a grown woman, I can heat up some water and microwave a cup of soup."

"Felicity," Oliver sighed and shook his head. "Your lack of faith in me is absolutely remarkable."

"Oh! Oh, don't do that." Felicity said, hitting her hand down on the duvet. "You're turning it into a thing. This is not a thing. You should be out there doing your save the city thing, not trying to persuade Addy to walk with you."

"I am excellent company." Oliver retorted, whistling sharply.

And now he was in a mood, Felicity sighed. Oliver Queen was so damn stubborn. However, she still couldn't picture him standing over her little stove and serving her some chicken noodle soup.

Before Addy could damage Oliver's ego too much, she called her into the room. Addy came running and she pointed to the green leash and collar on the dresser.

"Excellent company." Oliver repeated, with a sort of lopsided grin that made her stomach turn.

Not that she needed any convincing.

Felicity watched him take off with Addy, and turned over to turn her phone back on…because, well, she could only handle so many break-ins in one day.

. . .

Oliver was surprised, after coming back from walking the monstrous ball of fur, to find Felicity asleep. He chuckled quietly as he watched her for a moment, snoring softly when she rolled over with her blonde hair sticking to her face.

A smile crossed his face as he crossed the room, carefully brushing her hair from her face. She would kill him, he was sure, but there was something mesmerizing about her like this. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, but she didn't seem feverish.

He grabbed the blanket from the foot of the bed and covered her with it, turning back to go into the kitchen and heat up the ginger-chicken noodle soup that he had ordered from the deli at the corner—when he saw Addy looking at him with those judgy, big brown eyes.

"It's just a blanket." He whispered at her, "_Really_."

She growled low at him before jumping up on the foot of the bed, and clearly staking out her territory.

Of all the scenarios in the world, he'd competed with actors, models, and billionaires for a woman—but a yappy little dog? He never thought he'd live to see the day.

He rolled his eyes, Oliver would like to see how she was cozying up to him when she smelled the chicken on the stove.

That was getting ridiculous, he thought as he headed into the kitchen. He was _not_ competing with the dog. That wasn't happening.

He spent a few minutes in the kitchen, rifling through drawers and cupboards to try and find the dishes he needed; and was surprised by how few dishes she actually had. Clearly, Felicity was not a cooking kind of girl. He did find a saucepan and a spoon, and that would do it. There were a few dishes in the sink as well.

Oliver poured the soup into the saucepan and let it heat up, throwing the box into the overflowing garbage.

_Well_, Oliver thought, glancing around the room. _Oh yeah, she was just fine_. There was no way the Felicity he knew left her apartment in this disarray. She was organized to a fault.

He bagged up the trash, and set it aside, making a mental note to get rid of it before he left. He unearthed another bag and put it in the can, and decided to check the bathroom for any other trash.

While he'd been gone, she'd obviously gotten sick again. He focused on finding some cleaning supplies, and cleaning up the bathroom while the soup heated. By the time he was done, the soup would be ready as well, and he'd whip up a dose of Raisa's flu cure-all, a mixture of orange juice, lemon, and ginger.

It was probably for the best that Felicity was feeling better, and was in a good mood when he admitted to her that before he found her he'd crashed the system. In all fairness, Digg had not been without fault in this.

Oliver scrubbed at the porcelain, trying to work through his excuse.

"Not that it's a big deal," he practiced, "But I wanted to check—"

No. Oliver shook his head.

If all the trouble he and Tommy had gotten into as kids it had taught him that it truly was never best to shoulder all the blame.

"Diggle and I were working on finding you, and in the process of trying to save lives, and protect the city, we happened to…"

"Yeah, like she'll buy that." Oliver sighed, wiping up the mess carefully.

For a moment, he was struck by the thought of his dad. He remembered his mom telling him years ago that this was how she'd fallen in love with his dad. She'd gotten horribly sick on their second date, and he had taken her home and taken care of her—cleaning her whole apartment to boot—and how could she deny a third date to a man like that?

Well, not that this is like that. Oliver thought with a shake of his head, he knew better than to go there. Felicity was the best friend, she was the girl who he needed at his side. She didn't only keep the job in order, she kept him in order too. She was his voice of reason.

"They didn't have computers on the island."

Oliver laughed out loud at that, she had made it very clear how well she liked that one. It was probably best to not lead with that right out the gate.

He gave the sink and solid rinsing, then tossed the cloth in the garbage can before heading into Felicity's room to get the garbage from her room as well.

Felicity had rolled over on her side, and he emptied the garbage into the one from the bathroom, noticing with a slight pique of his interest that her phone was lighting up with a message.

It wasn't like he was trying to invade her privacy. He couldn't control a message sitting on her screen, and his happening to pass by it…

He shrugged, Thea didn't really buy that either.

Oliver was a little bit surprised to see that the message was from Tommy, suggesting breakfast Saturday.

His eyebrows furrowed together as he stood there for a moment and thought about it. Tommy and Laurel were still Tommy _and_ Laurel. He hated to think that maybe Tommy would…

"Oliver."

Oliver turned quickly, looking at Felicity who had apparently woken up stealthily enough to surprise him.

"Felciity. Short nap." He smiled, feigning innocence while he still could.

"Oliver, what are you doing?" Felicity gestured to the basket.

Addy barked at him, taking it as an excuse to voice her displeasure with Oliver.

"Emptying the garbage." Oliver said, with a shake of his head as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "Just let it go. It's a guy thing."

"Yeah…that's not true." Felicity said, sitting up and reaching past him to grab her phone.

"Feeling better?" Oliver asked her.

"Better enough to hire a locksmith for my balcony." Felicity said.

"Aw, come on now." Oliver laughed, "Is that any way to treat the guy who made you soup?"

"That depends." Felicity replied, "What kind?"

"Ginger chicken." He told her, "You'll love it."

"You don't do anything half-way do you?" Felicity laughed, "You couldn't just heat up a can of Campbell's best?"

"Felicty," Oliver sat down at the foot of the bed and patted the space where her legs were. "You're asking the guy in green leather with a compound bow if he does things half-way?"

Felicity rolled her eyes, "Speaking of leather and pointy sticks…"

Felicity's sentence trailed off, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Oliver stifled a chuckle, now that was his girl. Awkward innuendo and all.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded…but who is manning the city and making sure that bad guys aren't doing bad things while you're babysitting me?"

"Well, to leave you to fend for yourself would be a crime in and of itself." Oliver told her, jumping up from the bed, "And there is nothing that won't keep until you're back to your computers."

Oliver stopped at the door, "And the first step back to recovery for everyone involved is a big bowl of soup for you.

He turned on his heel to get the food, when he heard Felicity clear her throat.

"Stop." She said in a stern voice.

"The oven's calling though." Oliver told her, avoiding looking her way.

That was definitely approaching her loud voice.

"What did you do?" Felicity asked, "You got all twitchy when you mentioned my computers."

Oliver decided that now probably wasn't the time to remind her that he had paid for their pricey tech setup. No, definitely not.

"It's…I mean, I'm sure its not a big deal." An idea occurred to Oliver as he tried to dig himself out of this hole, "Nothing that my brilliant blonde virtuoso couldn't repair with a snap of her fingers."

"Oliver!" Felicity exclaimed.

Oliver turned back around, cringing and faced her.

"They don't have computers—"

Before Oliver could finish, and charm her with green eyes and a smile she threw one of the pillows from her bed at him, but he caught it at chest height.

"You—" Felicity pointed at him with abject frustration, "What did I tell you about the computer!"

"I know." Oliver hung his head guiltily, before flashing a smile her way, "I do have some good news though."

The pillow dangled in his hands, and Felicity wasn't going to be able to keep angry at him forever. Which was good, because he needed her.

"Your aim in getting better."


	23. She's His Girl

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_She's His Girl_

. . .

Summary: Oliver thought she was a one billionaire sort of girl.

Note: You guys! Thanks so much for still reading and enjoying the story! I'm flummoxed by all the favorites and alerts, and the reviews that you've been showering down. I'm working now on people's requests, and feel free to send more if you have them. I can't promise that all of them will make them into the story, but if not maybe I'll turn it into a one-shot or something. This chapter was based off of a request from _TanyaKay_.

. . .

"Felicity!" Oliver called as he hurried down the steps of Verdant, ready to gear up and take down Joe Ardito now that he had returned stateside from Italy. "Felicity!"

Considering the emergency message Felicity had sent him, he was hoping that it was good news. Ardito had spent a decade using low income, desperate kids in the Glades to do his dirty work, in exchange for protecting them from the other scum-also his-on the streets.

It was time to deal with the root of the problem. He wasn't letting Ardito drag any more kids into that seedy underbelly.

"You can keep hollering until you're hoarse, Oliver. She went upstairs to get some coffee." Diggle told him, walking around to the staircase, and gesturing back in the way Oliver had come.

_Felicity…wasn't there?_ For some reason, this didn't quite add up for Oliver.

Oliver's eyebrows furrowed together, looking intently at the computers as if expecting her to materialize in her chair. She was always here when she called him.

"Oliver," Diggle said, raising his eyebrows questioningly. "What are you doing?"

He shook his head, "I just came in. I didn't see her up there."

"And given your incredible powers of perception and observation I can see how upsetting that would be for you."

A smile played at the corner of Diggle's mouth.

"Not helping Digg." Oliver turned on his heel, and hurried back up the stairs.

It wouldn't be like Felicity to just go. Maybe she'd stopped in the bathroom, or...

_Tommy_. He realized as he hit the head of the staircase, maybe Tommy had seen her. Oliver wouldn't put it past his friend to have distracted her. They'd gotten closer, and it would be like Felicity to stop and talk if Tommy struck a conversation with her.

Before he bothered his friend, the bar apparently empty of his blonde ambition, he walked over to the bathrooms to check.

He knocked once as warning, just to pacify her if she was in there, then opened the door and called her.

"Felicity!" Oliver waited a moment to see if there was any response, and he didn't hear a sound.

Oliver was certain that if she was in there, he would be getting a mouthful about not having any place in the women's room, and to go back to where he came from.

He sighed, they didn't have time for this. It was almost dusk, and Ardito's plane was—well, no, he didn't know when exactly he would land back in Starling City because his IT girl had disappeared.

Walking past the bar, Oliver took note of the abandoned cup of coffee. Well, she _had_ been there.

He knew that Tommy and Laurel were at a sort of complicated place right now, and he just hoped that Tommy wouldn't think of doing anything stupid-

_Like date Felicity stupid?_ The voice in his head taunted. _She's not a nun. And Tommy's…well, he's Tommy. It wouldn't be the first time._

_No, not a jealousy thing_. He just would hate to see her get hurt.

Oliver shook the thought off, he couldn't help feeling a little bit protective of her.

Felicity was his girl, and it was innocent.

Totally innocent.

. . .

"So, it's all really simple." Felicity explained, looking over her shoulder at Tommy who was studying the screen intently.

She liked him, not only was he a pretty boy with incredibly delicate features, he also seemed eager to learn what she was teaching him. It was a fresh, new change from her work at Queen Consolidated—frankly, if it wasn't for her work with Oliver, she was sure she'd be bored.

There just hadn't been anything that was much of a challenge. She did just write a new security program, but since then it had been fixing personal laptops, and resetting routers, and pretending that people did not do the sorts of things on company tech that they did.

At least Oliver challenged her—sometimes even to the point of making her doubt her own abilities. She was just glad that she hadn't disappointed him yet.

"You say that like I'm not a multi-college dropout who has…the vaguest idea what he's doing." Tommy laughed, planting his arms on the desk around her as he watched the screen.

"Yeah, that's sort of a thing for you billionaires, huh?" Felicity turned around and glanced up at him with a wry smile.

"Oh, if you want to compare—don't even try. I've been kicked out of every private university on the east coast, Oliver gave up after the ivies."

Felicity rolled her eyes, clicking around on the screen and taking it back to the main screen.

She'd been surprised when Tommy had asked her before to set up a software program on the computers in the bar for security, after it had crashed and destroyed the inventory and payroll reports.

"Well, at least you're ambitious." Felicity told him. "Now,"

She pointed at the screen.

"This will run periodic security checks on its own, no one will be able to hack into your system again."

"Not even you?" Tommy teased her. "I hear you can do anything with a router and a tablet."

"Oliver likes to brag." Felicity said, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. "And I actually do have my limits."

"I don't know about that." Tommy said. "You're extraordinary."

Tommy, Felicity thought, was also a natural flirt. In most guys, she would have found this quality to be both obnoxious and off-putting, but in him it was nothing but charming. She could see how he and Oliver made such good friends. She didn't think that Tommy was what people said he was either.

They were both all charm, and worse, they both knew it.

She was glad in Tommy's case, to see that the apple had fallen far from the tree.

Felicity just hoped that one day he would see who his father really was, and that it wouldn't hurt him. She didn't like walking around with all of these secrets, and knowledge that no one else really had. It felt a little bit too much like playing God.

"Because I'm awesome," Felicity told him, "I also installed this nifty little program so that you can keep an eye on that cash register drawers even if you're in your office."

"Oh wow," Tommy said, eyes opening in surprise as she showed the way that the cameras showed the empty, open drawers directly. "Big Brother's watching."

"I know it might seem a little excessive, but you did say that the count on the drawers had been unusually off the last couple of weekends, and this is an easy way to see if it's a bookkeeping error, or someone skimming off of the top."

"Very clever." Tommy told her, with a nod of his head. "What gave you that idea?"

"Well," Felicity said, "I hate to say I can't stake an original claim. I worked in retail through college—you might be one of the last employers in town to institute this sort of security measure."

"Well, I guess we can't just operate on good faith and trust." Tommy said, "Not if we want to keep turning a profit."

"Well, if last weekend was any indication," Felicity said, "It didn't look like a profit was a problem."

"You were here last weekend?" Tommy asked her, "I didn't even see you."

"That's the problem with living in the basement." Felicity laughed, "I'm a little invisible."

"Oh, you might be a lot of things, but I don't think invisible is one of them." Tommy told her, with a bright smile. "You'll have to stick around upstairs one of these nights, I think I owe you a drink after all this hard work."

"Maybe two." Felicity teased.

Her mind froze then, not totally realizing what Tommy was saying to her as she realized what she was doing. _Again_, she was in this strange, sort of awkward flirtation with another guy who was in love with Laurel.

The last thing she needed to be doing was getting infatuated with another guy who was completely and totally unavailable to her—it was bad enough that she was attracted to Oliver, she really didn't need to add Tommy to the list.

"Well, if you can save me from this nightmare you're getting free drunks for life."

Felicity laughed, feeling the closeness of Tommy's arm and wondering if she'd just been jumping to conclusions again. It was probably just like it was with Oliver, totally amicable, and-

With a start, Felicity looked at the clock and realized she had been in the office with Tommy for over a half hour. She was sure Oliver had gotten here by now, and they were on a strict timetable—he was probably in the basement doing his version of anxious waiting—beating up his workout dummy, or breaking out the sticks.

_I hate missing that_, she thought, trying to hide a little smile.

Oliver had to grab their bad guy before he was safely ensconced in the mafia headquarters, and since she'd cracked the intel on his arrival, she needed to load the GPS onto Oliver's phone so that he could do his thing and surrender this guy and his confession to the metro cops...or, you know, maybe an arrow in the chest. It all would depend on Ardito.

"Happy to help." Felicity turned and smiled, "Anytime, Tommy."

...

Oliver's hand froze mid-knock as he glanced into Tommy's office and saw-

_He hijacked my girl?_ Oliver thought, feeling a little spark of jealousy as he watched Tommy's arms curved around her at the computer, and Felicity between his arms, glancing up at him and laughing.

_That was their thing. _

"You're amazing." Tommy said with a chuckle, and shook his head.

"You already said that," Felicity said, a smile at the corner of her mouth. "It was really not problem."

He knocked once on the mostly open door, and walked in and he heard Tommy call him in, trying to stomach the annoyance he felt.

"Hi Tommy."

Almost immediately, Tommy drew back, his hands falling to his sides.

_Expecting someone else?_ He wondered.

"Oliver, hey. I was expecting Thea's boyfriend."

Oliver cringed, "Not that word. Please."

Tommy laughed.

"Okay, okay. Business or pleasure?"

"_I_ don't know," Felicity said suddenly, a frown curving her lips down as she peered over the computer at Oliver. "But at least you rate a knock on the door."

"Oliver and I learned a long time ago the value of knocking on the door." Tommy said, laughing at the memory.

Oliver really hoped he wouldn't bring up the twins in front of Felicity. It wasn't really one of his best moments.

"I guess I'm just not special enough." Felicity smiled wryly, glancing back at Tommy. "Just call if you need any more help."

_Not special enough_... Oliver shook his head. She had no idea. She was his number one girl.

Felicity Smoak wasn't just special; she was unique, and irreplaceable.

She glanced Oliver's way.

"Prior commitment, but I will take you up on that drink."

Oliver waved his hand in a gesture of good bye to Tommy.

"You're late." Oliver told her, resting a hand on the small of her back as he led her across the bar.

"For the first time, ever." Felicity told him bluntly. "It was an anomaly."

He hoped the jealousy was as well. Oliver didn't like marring their relationship with that. They were just fine the way they were.

"He's going to be at the Boerig Airstrip." Felicity told him as they hurried down the stairs. "Wheels down at nine."

"Its seven-fifteen." Oliver told her, looking at his watch in surprise. "Why the 911?"

Felicity looked over at him before slipping into her chair.

"Neither one of you are going to like it. Honestly, I'm not so keen on it myself." She said, looking between him and Digg. "Arnito is traveling with his daughters, they'll be on the plane and at the airstrip—"

"And we're not putting it past him to use two innocent girls to protect himself?" Oliver asked.

"Actually, we're counting on it." Felicity said. "He escaped the FBI three years ago using his eldest daughter, and I'd take a gamble and say he knows the Hood would be gunning for him."

"And he has his insurance policy right on board." Diggle groaned. "This is messy. We didn't plan for that."

"Actually," Felicity corrected, pointing at him. "You two didn't, I'm supposed to account for these...hiccups."

"Wow us." Diggle said, "I'm blank."

"Oliver, you just have to delay it by seconds. I'm going to have the daughters detained by security. I hacked into their system and left a report showing that traces of Vertigo were found on their luggage."

"Its a small window." Diggle said.

"I know." Felicity looked apologetic about that.

"A small window is all I need." Oliver said, nodding his head. "This is good."

"So, hence the 911." Felicity told him. "It'll give you a minute, maybe a minute and a half with him."

"Then security and everyone will descend." Diggle said. "And you had better get out of there."

"I'll be fine." Oliver said. "Good work, Felicity. You're my girl."

He flashed a smile, she was his one-of-a-kind, number one girl.


	24. The Way We Are

More Interruptus Than Coitus

_The Way We Are _

. . .

Summary: They drive each other crazy.

Note: Thanks everyone for all the kind reviews. I intended on getting this chapter up much, much sooner but now that I'm working on _His Girl Friday_ and _Far From Paradise _as well, I've overextended myself as usual, and I needed to take the time to really work on this chapter. Plus, I've got the flu right now…so I know some of you out there are feeling my pain too.

. . .

Felicity was sitting at her desk, working on cracking the phone that Oliver had handed her, when there came a knock at the door. For a moment she was filled with a flicker of annoyance.

She'd only had it for three hours, she was good, but she wasn't—no, _no one_ was that good.

However, then it was like a light bulb went off in her head. The visitor knocked, and then waited before knocking again. This was obviously, clearly not Oliver. And if it was him, they had a problem.

And really… Felicity thought as she called for them to come in, a small part of her would be sorry to see that change. As much as she complained, and berated him for it…it was their thing. Silly as it was, she secretly loved (usually) their arguments about his lack of respect for her personal boundaries.

_If that door wasn't a metaphor for the feelings she tried to keep pushed down in her chest for Oliver she didn't know what was._

"Erica!" Felicity looked up to her assistant with a surprised smile as the tall, slender brunette walked in with her tablet in hand, "Is everything okay with that job you're doing for Mr. Patterson?"

Quickly, she closed the screen to her laptop, and pushed it aside as subtly as possible. If Erica saw this side job, it might be a little difficult to explain away.

"Oh no, totally fine." Erica shook the thought off, pushing her long hair off of her shoulders. "It's uh…do you have a minute? Could we talk?"

Erica glanced at the desk, "You look busy. But you're always busy."

She laughed nervously, looking like she would slip into the seat across from Felicity's desk before changing her mind.

"No, of course we can." Felicity stepped away from her desk and shut the door to her office. "What's going on? Take a seat."

"No," Erica shook her head, "I think I need to stand. Sitting makes me nervous."

As bad as such a statement sounded, Felicity was relieved to be granted a reprieve.

The encryption on this phone was good, and it was making her frustrated. Also, it was nice to have a reminder of the fact that once, she did have a real life, where she had conversations with friends that did not revolve around the disintegration of society; but pervert bosses, and cute shoes, and sometimes cute boys.

Erica also seemed to be one of the only people in the office who didn't gossip about her rendezvous with Oliver Queen. Did people think she was deaf and stupid? She knew that they all thought she was trying to sleep her way to the top, and…well, it obviously wasn't the case.

Oliver would have to be attracted to her for that, and really? Were these people blind? She could think of a lot of reasons she'd like to be with Oliver that had nothing to do with the business or his last name.

Felicity was dragged back to reality as she remembered Erica.

She seemed so nervous, Felicity hoped everything was fine with her.

"Oh, um..." Erica seemed to lose her nerve now as Felicity came back to the desk and looked at her. "The thing is...I saw that they have that the department has that opening for IT help in security operations, and I know that I'm just an assistant, but I've learned so much from you, but I don't even want to apply if it will be weird-obviously, you are so incredibly more qualified...if you were applying, I wouldn't even bother…"

"You _should_ absolutely go for it." Felicity told her, nodding her head encouragingly. "You're way too talented to just be my assistant, Erica. As much as I'll miss having someone as efficient and hard working as you."

That was going to be tough. Erica was the only person she'd trusted to pass an obscene amount of her work off onto while she was caught up in things for Oliver. Felicity sighed silently, this was going to make things harder.

"Are you sure?" Erica asked, "I mean, you work with upper management all the time-I would have thought they would have come to you first."

_What a polite way of saying that I'm constantly around Oliver Queen_, Felicity thought. _It was certainly nicer than what the gossips said._

Felicity couldn't deny it, they had offered her the position, and while it came with a rather nice raise, and a bigger office it also would have involved a lot more hours in the office and responsibilities she couldn't just pass off to an assistant. Oliver needed her right now, and currently her job offered her the flexibility to be out of the office when she needed to be.

To be with him, and working for him, when he needed her.

"I'm happy where I am right now." Felicity said brightly, realizing how true it really was. Where she was right now, it felt good to her.

"Would you mind writing me a reference?" Erica asked her tentatively. "I know it would go really far with Mr. Evans."

"Absolutely." Felicity said, "I don't know anyone more deserving of this promotion than you."

_Although, I wouldn't say no to a pay raise. Those student loan payments aren't going to resolve themselves._

"Well, everything I know I learned from you." Erica told her, leaning toward her with a bright smile. "You've been incredible Felicity, I really appreciate all you've done for..."

Erica's voice trailed off abruptly as the door opened and Oliver walked in.

"Felicity," he started, "Oh. Am I interrupting something important?"

"Well, the door was closed," Felicity said, gesturing pointedly. "Are we still not grasping this?"

"Oh. Mr. Queen," Erica turned quickly, nearly dropping the tablet in her hand out of nerves. "No um…I can…I'll go. Felicity."

Felicity looked past her, glaring at Oliver. It was one thing to drop in and interrupt her on a dime, but was no time personal anymore?

"No, I can…wait." Oliver said, "I'm sorry for interrupting, Felicity, Erica…"

Oliver turned on his heel, and slipped back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

"He knows my name." Erica said in a hushed, awed whisper to Felicity. "Mr. Queen knows who I am?"

"He prefers Oliver," Felicity said with a heavy sigh as she glanced at the closed door.

She should have known he was going to drop in and _watch_ her work. Really, it wasn't going to make things move along any faster. It drove her crazy when he did that.

"Okay, um…well I'm going to go." Erica clutched her tablet nervously, "Are you going to um….lunch?"

She gestured to Oliver in the hall, and Felicity almost laughed. Yeah, that would be new and different.

"I don't think so." Felicity said with a slow sigh. "I'll have it written by tomorrow morning, and leave it on your desk. You're a shoe in."

"With your help maybe." Erica said, "Thanks again, Felicity."

. . .

_Unbelievable_, Oliver thought, _he'd been kicked out for a conversation of lipstick and skirts_?

The sensible, objective part of his brain knew that it was far from that, however, the part of his brain that knew the tall brunette was standing in-between him and his glaring problem was making it hard to look at this all rationally.

He needed Felicity. _Not like that. _

_Liar. _

Oliver knew that he was getting sidetracked, but she was looking particularly pretty today. She was all blonde ponytail, and with a violet dress that hugged her body his mind had been sidetracked when he walked into the office.

"Mr. Queen," Erica walked out of the office, looking up at him curiously. "Sorry…um, Felicity said you can go right in."

"Thank you." Oliver told her, trying to remember to be friendly. "I'm sorry for interrupting you, Erica."

"Oh wow, not at all sir. Felicity was just helping me with a reference for a job, and I'm her assistant, so it would make sense for her to do it—that is, since she doesn't want the job herself. I'm not nearly as qualified as she would be—oh. Wow, I probably shouldn't have admitted that to the boss."

"I think you're safe." Oliver told her with a smile, "If Felicity thinks that you're the right woman for the job, then it must be so."

Oliver turned away from her, and walked back into Felicity's office, closing the door behind him. Before he could even say anything, she started to talk.

"Don't even ask." Felicity told him, "I've been working on it all night and all morning. It's just going to take some more time."

He wished it was that simple. Before, Oliver had been looking forward to a day of pleasant banter with his girl as she worked. There was little that just felt as easy as sitting with Felicity. It just felt…okay. Nothing ever seemed forced, or difficult, and he never felt some sort of pressure to be a different person for her.

And the irony was, being around her made him want to be a better sort of person, the sort of person that was worthy of being believed in by someone like her.

"That's why I'm here." Oliver said, glancing down at her at her desk playing with the phone as they talked, and plucked the phone away and set it aside.

"Oh, you have no idea how annoying that is? Do you?" Felicity folded her arms and looked to him. "Why are you here then?"

"Thea didn't come home last night, and I'm concerned. I've called her friends and none of them have seen her."

"Did you uh…try calling…"

Oliver handed her Thea's phone.

"Oh. So, I guess that wouldn't work." Felicity looked at the phone in surprise, "Who leaves without their phone these days?"

"Do you think you can track her down?" Oliver asked. "I just want to make sure she's okay."

And maybe lock her safely away in her room until he'd finished his father's mission and the city was a safe place again.

"Oliver…" Felicity shook her head, handing him back the phone. "I don't need that to find your sister."

She turned to her tablet, doing something with lightning fast fingers that Oliver took as a 'yes' and 'right away'. Felicity was incredible.

"Don't you think the phone might be helpful? It's how you tracked down Carmelo Anthony."

"Yes, but he is a fifty year old Italian mobster, Thea is an eighteen year old girl...with a cute boyfriend." Felicity said bluntly. "You didn't really think this one through, didn't you?"

_He wasn't cute_, Oliver thought feeling a little disgruntled by her words. Roy was sort of like a thorn in his side. It was bad enough that his sister was so enamored, but did Felicity have to act like he was a stray puppy in need of love?

"Sometimes I get wistful for the old Felicity," Oliver said as she chuckled at his misfortune, "The one who was concerned for the preservation of her job and reputation."

"Yeah, well that girl got a harsh wake up call in the form of an emerald archer with an ungrateful attitude." Felicity reminded him.

"I…" Oliver sighed, she was right, of course. "I'm not ungrateful, but you're right. Thank you…but don't think for a second that I don't appreciate everything you do Felicity. I'd be lost without you."

Felicity's cheek's flushed pink as she grabbed her coat from the back of her chair.

"What are you doing?" Oliver asked her, hoping she didn't think she was doing what he thought she was doing.

"Uh…" Felicity looked at him like the answer was obvious. "You're joking, aren't you?"

"No." Oliver said, "Just give me the address."

"Yeah." Felicity shook her head. "No. Like you need an excuse for Detective Lance to arrest you? Also, I'm adverse to you being incarcerated for killing a perfectly nice boy with the pretty eyes just because he—"

"Please don't say it." Oliver told her.

"She's eighteen years old Oliver!" Felicity exclaimed in exasperation, "We can't all be nuns to appease you."

"We…" Oliver was thrown for a moment.

Besides, it wasn't like he wanted Thea to be a nun. He just wanted her to stay out of trouble, and away from Roy, and…maybe away from guys for another couple of years. For the love of God, he'd been on an island for five years, he'd missed the easy time to be a big brother. When he left, Thea was just as happy with a giant teddy bear as she was now by this guy.

"Figure of speech." Felicity said, turning away from him and shutting her computer down. "And I am _too_ going."

"I could just log into the software at Verdant and pull the address for his employee records." Oliver argued with her. "I'm not computer inept, Felicity."

"Good luck with that." Felicity retorted, "When I hacked into it, I altered your settings and logins."

"And they want to arrest the Hood?" Oliver shook his head. "Fine. But you're staying right by my side—do you understand me? The Glades aren't an amusement park."

"Really, because when I was in college I was robbed at Cedar Point." Felicity told him, as she pulled her coat on and grabbed her purse from the hook on her door. "What? It feels like a fair comparison."

"I can't let you out of my sight." Oliver sighed, jerking his head toward the door for her to come along.

"You know, maybe you should start taking me out into the field." Felicity told him, an eager tone in her voice as she followed him. "We can be like CSI, or…Mulder and Scully."

"Mm..hm…" Oliver made a non-committal sound in his throat, deciding this was one of those circumstances where it was best for Felicity to talk herself dry.

The fact of the matter was that he worried about her enough behind the computer and into the basement. He'd never bring her deeper into this for the same reason that he would never bring her closer into his life than as a friend—he'd never be able to live with himself if she was hurt.

She trusted him, Oliver had seen in in her eyes time and time again, and he refused to ever betray that trust by letting something happen to her.

Why did they need it when things were just fine the way that they were?

"You could teach me how to shoot a crossbow." Felicity told him in a hushed tone as they walked down the hall toward the elevator.

"Whatever would persuade you to think that's a good idea? You didn't even like learning to spar with Digg."

"I didn't like being thrown on the mat time and time again, what a surprise." Felicity said, "C'mon, Oliver."

At the elevator, she turned and looked up at him eagerly.

"I know you taught Helena Bertenilli."

_Yeah, and that had worked out so well for him. _

"At least I'm mentally stable." Felicity told him, then looked sideways at him, "Or is it only a perk for your girlfriends?"

"I'd be willing to argue that case." Oliver said, leading her into the elevator with a groan. "I don't think now is the time to discuss this anyways."

Oliver watched as the elevator doors closed behind them. Part of keeping her safe, was making sure that she was safe from herself too—as much as he needed her, he wouldn't let her lose herself to his cause.

"So…" Felicity asked, watching the numbers on the elevator decrease. "You want to talk about your sister's sleepover instead?"

Oliver bit down on his mouth, she was punishing him, this he realized…but what for he didn't know.

As the elevator dinged, he looked over at her.

Just because she was his girl, did not mean that Felicity didn't sometimes drive him crazy.


End file.
